Radical Thinking
An AI advisory based in Dubai. 20+ years of enterprise experience, turning AI experiments into results.
Our story
Radical Thinking did not start in 2009. It started in 2005, when a university intern walked into Microsoft's Dubai office and made himself impossible to forget. Four years later, freshly graduated and newly arrived in a city still shaking off the 2008 crash, that network opened the first doors. Microsoft, HP, Lenovo. Not bad for someone who had never had a proper job.
The crash that wiped out agencies became the launch platform. No overhead, no bloat, just sharp thinking and fast execution. For over a decade the agency punched above its weight, always at the front of the technology curve, building for some of the biggest tech brands in the region.
Then AI arrived. And it changed everything. Not the tools, the questions. Radical Thinking runs on a different principle now. Senior thinking, delivered with AI where AI belongs, and human judgment where it matters. Lean by design. Focused by choice. Built to solve the kind of problems that don't have off-the-shelf answers.
Founder
Stephan van Wijk
Founder and principal of Radical Thinking. Twenty years of digital and AI experience across the Middle East, delivered for governments, ministries, and enterprise clients across the region.
Career highlights include work on the E-Dirham programme with the UAE Ministry of Finance, the EnergyAI programme, and most recently as Associate Director of Digital Engagement at EPAM. Along the way, projects with Microsoft, HP, Lenovo, 1001 Inventions, the Netherlands Government, the UAE Ministry of Economy, and others.
Radical Thinking was founded in 2009 as the vehicle for delivering senior digital and AI work independently. It now focuses on advisory, implementation, and delivery for organisations turning AI experiments into commercial outcomes.
Based in Dubai. Working globally.
The formula
BI = C + Ex × T²
Bold Ideas = Creative + Experience × Technology²
AI advisory only works when the formula does. Creative finds what is worth building. Experience makes it land. Technology amplifies both — that is how Radical Thinking turns AI experiments into results.
C
Creative
The human soul of the idea
AI generates volume. It cannot generate meaning. Creative is the part only humans bring.
Ex
Experience
The feeling left behind
Not usability. Emotional residue. The impression that stays after every interaction.
T²
Technology
The amplifier
AI squares the impact of every idea and experience. The carrier and multiplier.
Mission
To help organisations turn AI capability into commercial outcomes. We find where AI creates real value, build around it, and deliver systems and strategies that work in the real world.
Vision
Senior thinking, applied with the right tools, should be able to solve problems that used to require whole floors of specialists. Lean does not mean small. It means focused, senior, and directly accountable for the outcome.
Key facts
- Founded
- 2009, Dubai, UAE
- Founder
- Stephan van Wijk
- Formula
- BI = C + Ex × T²
- Location
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Selected clients
- Microsoft, HP, Lenovo, UAE Ministry of Finance, UAE Ministry of Economy, Netherlands Government, 1001 Inventions, Payment Partners, AI Networks, and others.
- Services
- AI advisory, implementation, and delivery. See services page for detail.
- Commercial licence
- DET Commercial Licence 714580 (Radical Thinking Web Design L.L.C), licensed since 2014.
- Website
- radical-thinking.net
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