CyberSift CEO Brian Zarb Adami has highlighted that being based in Malta presents more challenges than advantages, particularly when looking to serve a global audience.

Mr Zarb Adami, who is at the helm of the Malta-based cybersecurity solutions company, was asked by this newsroom about the difficulties and opportunities available to local companies seeking to provide services beyond Malta’s borders.

He remarked that from his more than two decades of experience in senior management, he has learnt that it is often a “bigger challenge than it is an advantage”.

He first pointed towards the size of local businesses, stating that they are relatively small when compared to those in larger European countries.

“This is not a bad thing, but it does make it harder to gain real enterprise-level experience when the company aspires of playing at such levels on an international scale,” Mr Zarb Adami said.

Explaining his reasoning, he stated that very often, many people realise that Malta is a “good proving ground” for a particular concept, yet in order to get the exposure one truly desires, then they would have to move abroad.

“Locally, growth is very hard to come by and organisations with a real venture capital mindset are few and far between,” he continued.

Additionally, when contrasted to other countries, Malta seems to be “well geared” to attract foreign investment, prioritising this ahead of the internationalisation of local firms which have the potential to “spar with international players that are much larger than we are”.

He also referred to the fact that in recent years, Government has strongly pushed for more focus on artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in terms of improving AI capabilities within the local workforce.

AI has been a hot topic among the business landscape, with many executives seemingly at odds about whether or not such emerging technologies will improve business operations. While many have expressed concerns about AI’s influence on human resources, other business leaders have stated that AI like ChatGPT will ultimately not replace human talent.

However, Mr Zarb Adami stressed that in order for AI to be utilised accordingly, the local talent pool has to be “well developed” and adequately trained. “Are efforts to increase interest in the field among students bearing fruit?” he questioned.

“I think that the area is still in its infancy, and we haven’t realised any of the potential that AI can bring. I think that it would be beneficial to start teaching the beginnings of our AI earlier in IT curricula for people to start becoming accustomed with the language and the way these systems operate,” he explained.

Adopting such a nationwide strategy would make it easier to teach AI in higher levels of education to students who would “eventually become part of the workforce,” he concluded.