At LEAP 2026, Globant introduced the world’s first Agent-to-Agent tourism protocol, took the new operating system for sports to the stage, and ran four days of live technology from the booth.
One global stage, four days, and the full weight of what Globant brings to a market moving this fast.
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 rests on a few clear pillars: sports, entertainment, and tourism, as the Kingdom advances at a pace few other markets are matching.
Gathering more than 200,000 people, LEAP in Riyadh was the place where we showed transformation that is already tangible: a network in which AI agents can communicate across tourism entities, understand their respective data and capabilities, and construct experiences across destinations, a new model for AI in the travel industry and the operating system behind modern sports; and the work we do alongside the boldest partners transforming industries across the region. We also introduced Glob.AI, our new model for technology services, in which AI Pods, run by agents and supervised by Globant experts, are priced based on outcomes rather than hours.
Two destinations, two agents, one protocol
On the World Tech Stage, Globant, TOURISE, Red Sea Global, and AWS launched the Agentic Tourism Corridor: the first live implementation of an Agent-to-Agent (A2A) tourism protocol. In practice, two AI agents—one representing destinations like Red Sea Global and one representing AlUla, talk directly to each other to build a journey, checking availability, weighing preferences, and assembling an experience across both destinations in real time.
The protocol behind it was introduced last year at TOURISE, in a standard that Globant and other organizations, including Red Sea Global, HUMAIN, Riyadh Air, King Salman International Airport, Amazon Web Services, Salesforce, Hollibob, and Trip.com, designed together for how tourism systems should communicate in an age of autonomous AI. Saudi Arabia is where it started running. Each destination keeps its own systems, data, and identity, and any airline, hotel group, airport, or destination can join by adopting the standard.
“Travel has been held back by fragmentation for too long. The moment has come to reinvent it from the inside out, and Agentic AI is the enabler that makes that reinvention possible at scale,” said Julio de Salvo, Chief Solution Officer at Globant MENA & APAC, who was joined on stage by Ahmed Boshnak, Managing Director KSA at Amazon Web Services; Sultan Moraished, Group Head of Technology & Corporate Excellence at Red Sea Global; and Sarah Altamimi, VP of TOURISE.
The operating system for sport
On the Sports Hub Stage, Luis Ureta, CEO of Sportian, was joined by Prasanna Ballepalli of LALIGA in a session moderated by Fernando Cea, Technology VP at Globant MENA & APAC. Their case: sport’s next era runs on a single operating system, with fan identity, behavioral data, content, venue operations and performance intelligence in one layer. Sportian, co-created with LALIGA, an example of how AI in sports technology is reshaping fan experiences and operations, already serves more than 80 sporting organizations worldwide, including organizations like Saudi Pro League, MotoGP, Serie A, and Mexican Football Federation, as well as Mauricio Pochettino, Head coach of the United States men’s national soccer team.
The group discussed how the most valuable part of a matchday now happens before anyone reaches the stadium. The relationship starts weeks earlier, with the ticket, the flight and the parking booking. A venue that knows who is coming can shape the day in advance: the route in, the seat, the food and the content that reaches them on the way. Fans arrive already recognized and everything they do inside feeds the next invitation.
Tech Insider Sessions
Daily informal talks alongside partners were also part of our booth’s agenda.
Carlos Rojas Durán, Managing Director, EMEA MarTech Studio at Globant, was joined by Edd Atcheson, Head of Innovation, EMEA, at Adobe, to discuss unifying ticketing, streaming, retail, sponsorship, and social into a single fan identity and producing content fast enough to keep pace with a live sporting calendar.
Baz Ali, VP of Data & AI MENA & APAC at Globant, also paired with Zeljka Stiblik, Head of AI Product Engineering at Infobip, for a session on fan engagement. Infobip’s research found that two-thirds of fans feel disconnected from the teams they follow, and the gap is widest among under-35s. Zeljka brought the case they built for Haas, an underdog team using technology to hold its own against the biggest names on the grid: RaceMate launched at the Formula 1® Miami Grand Prix, lives on WhatsApp and Apple Messages instead of an app, and adjusts to how much each fan already knows, an example of AI-powered fan engagement and personalization in sports. Baz went deep into how F1® and technology have merged, with the same real-time data that wins races now shaping what fans see from home.
We also joined Adobe on their own stage, where Sultan Moraished of Red Sea Global and Carlos Rojas walked the audience through the Connected Visitor Experience, built on Adobe Experience Manager and delivered by Globant as the portfolio scales toward 300,000 guests.
Four days at Booth H4 F10
Beyond the stages and sessions, the booth was alive throughout the week. Our team hosted client meetings and curious visitors through the activations. The booth ran on the concept of “show, don’t tell.” The Perfect Pit Stop put daring visitors in a VR pit lane as an F1® crew. The F1® Pitwall Demo opened up the Team Content Delivery System (TCDS), the official Formula 1® solution Globant built for the teams, giving screen engineers, strategists, and drivers the tools to make race-winning decisions. And The Fast React tested visitors’ reflexes against an F1® driver’s.
A demo of the Agentic Tourism Corridor put the visitor journey on display, where anyone could watch a trip take shape between the Red Sea and AlUla as the two agents negotiated it.
The future of AI in this region is being built now, and Riyadh is where it starts. See you on the next leap.
