Technology

FROM PILOTS TO POWER INFRASTRUCTURE: HOW THE GCC IS ENGINEERING THE NEXT PHASE OF AI

Published

9 months ago

December 22, 2025

A professional portrait of Farid Yousefi, Founder and CEO of Finder Group Ai, an AI-powered venture builder in Dubai. He is an innovative leader with a distinguished beard and dark hair, dressed in a sharp navy blue suit and a white dress shirt, looking directly at the camera with an authoritative and visionary expression. The background is a clean, modern corporate setting that reflects the sophisticated GCC AI infrastructure and venture capital landscape discussed in the article

By Farid Yousefi, Founder & CEO, Finder Group Ai

Artificial intelligence in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is entering a decisive new chapter. What began as experimentation, ie, isolated pilots, proof-of-concept chatbots, and innovation lab demos, is rapidly evolving into something far more consequential. In 2026, AI will no longer sit at the periphery of digital transformation strategies. Instead, it will operate as a foundational layer of economic, industrial, and civic infrastructure, embedded into how energy systems run, how governments serve citizens, and how capital flows through the region.

This shift reflects a broader reality: the GCC is no longer merely adopting global AI trends, but actively shaping its own AI paradigm, one that is grounded in sovereign control of data and compute, tuned to Arabic language and local context, and aligned with national visions that prioritize scale, speed, and long-term resilience. The region’s ambition is not incremental improvement, it is to redefine how intelligence itself is designed, governed, and deployed at national scale.

The Maturation of Generative and Agentic AI

By 2026, the most significant leap in AI capability across the GCC will come from the maturation of generative AI and “agentic” AI systems. These technologies move beyond passive analytics or conversational interfaces. Agentic AI can reason, plan, and take actions across complex workflows, effectively acting as a digital operator rather than a static tool.

Crucially for the region, large language models fine-tuned for Arabic dialects and Gulf-specific context are rapidly improving. This has profound implications. Customer-facing AI systems are becoming genuinely fluent, capable of understanding nuance across Modern Standard Arabic, Gulf dialects, and bilingual Arabic-English interactions. Banks can now deploy AI-driven fraud detection and customer support in Arabic without sacrificing accuracy or trust. Governments can offer multilingual virtual assistants that guide citizens through services with clarity and cultural sensitivity.

Beyond language, real-time predictive analytics is reaching operational maturity. In energy and utilities, AI models are being trained to detect early warning signs of equipment failure on oil rigs, pipelines, and power grids. The economic impact is significant: preventing a single unplanned outage can save millions of dollars while improving safety and environmental outcomes.

In logistics and smart cities, multimodal AI, systems that simultaneously process images, sensor data, and text, is transforming operations. Ports are using AI to automate customs paperwork and optimize cargo routing. Cities like Dubai and Riyadh are deploying AI to dynamically manage traffic congestion, monitor infrastructure health, and improve public safety. These capabilities signal a clear transition: AI is no longer an experimental back-office function, but front-line infrastructure, intelligence delivered as a utility.

Redesigning Government and National Infrastructure Around AI

This technological maturation is reshaping how GCC governments think about digital services and national-scale infrastructure. Traditional e-government portals, static, form-based, and siloed, are giving way to AI-powered concierge models. Instead of navigating multiple platforms, citizens increasingly interact with a single intelligent agent.

Imagine a system that can visually review submitted documents, understand a request in natural language, and execute transactions across multiple departments in one seamless interaction. This is not a distant vision. Across the GCC, ministries are already using generative AI to automate administrative tasks, summarize regulations, and simulate policy outcomes. These early deployments foreshadow a future where agent-based systems anticipate needs and act proactively.

Mega-projects and smart city initiatives are embedding AI from inception rather than retrofitting it later. With dense networks of IoT sensors feeding real-time data, cities such as NEOM, Riyadh, and Dubai are building AI “control layers” that continuously monitor traffic, energy consumption, water usage, and security. Agent-based systems can then coordinate responses, rerouting vehicles, balancing power loads, or flagging anomalies, without waiting for human intervention.

The result is self-optimizing infrastructure. Humans remain responsible for strategy, ethics, and oversight, while AI executes decisions at machine speed. This represents a fundamental shift in governance and urban management: designing for intelligence at scale rather than manual supervision.

Sovereign Compute: The Backbone of GCC AI Ambitions

None of this transformation is possible without a parallel revolution in AI infrastructure. The GCC’s aspiration to become a global AI hub hinges on sovereign compute capacity – control over the data centers, chips, and energy that power advanced AI models.

Over the past two years alone, sovereign wealth funds across the region have mobilized more than $100 billion toward AI infrastructure. This scale of investment is unprecedented, outpacing even Europe. Landmark initiatives such as Abu Dhabi’s Stargate project, a multi-gigawatt data center campus designed to host and train large AI models on local data, and Saudi Arabia’s plans for up to 6 gigawatts of AI data centers under its HUMAIN initiative exemplify this ambition.

The region enjoys a structural advantage in this race: energy. Power costs in the Gulf are less than half those in many European markets, providing a natural edge in the energy-intensive process of training large models. At the same time, operators are innovating to address environmental and climatic challenges. Advanced cooling technologies, including liquid immersion cooling, are being deployed to operate efficiently in summer temperatures exceeding 45°C. Renewable energy integration is also increasing, aligning AI growth with sustainability goals.

Equally important is sovereign control over hardware. GCC nations are investing in local chip design programs and forging strategic partnerships to secure access to cutting-edge AI processors. In an era of global supply-chain uncertainty, this control over compute is becoming as strategically important as control over oil reserves once was. The region is effectively converting its natural advantages of capital and energy into a durable compute advantage for the AI age.

Where ROI Is Materializing First

From an investment standpoint, the strongest returns in the GCC are emerging where AI delivers direct, measurable impact. Predictive maintenance in energy and utilities is a prime example. AI systems that prevent equipment failures or optimize drilling operations offer immediate cost savings and operational resilience. Unsurprisingly, pilots in oil and gas—such as AI models analyzing drilling plans—are rapidly scaling into production environments.

In financial services, AI-driven fraud detection, risk scoring, and KYC automation are moving from experimentation to enterprise-wide deployment. Banks across the region have demonstrated that these systems reduce losses, improve compliance, and significantly speed up customer onboarding. Customer service automation is also reaching maturity. Telecom operators, airlines, and government agencies that once piloted Arabic-language chatbots are now preparing to replace tier-one support entirely with AI agents, improving availability while lowering costs.

Logistics represents another high-ROI frontier. Gulf ports and free zones are scaling AI solutions that automate documentation, optimize cargo flows, and reduce bottlenecks. Successful trials have shown faster throughput and improved competitiveness—critical advantages for economies positioning themselves as global trade hubs.

The common thread is pragmatism. Investors and enterprises are increasingly prioritizing AI that solves real problems and delivers returns per dollar invested. The era of AI experimentation without clear outcomes is giving way to disciplined scaling of proven use cases.

Regulation as an Accelerator, Not a Constraint

As AI adoption accelerates, governance has become a central pillar of the GCC’s strategy. National AI frameworks in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar are establishing trust-first guardrails focused on transparency, accountability, and human oversight. These policies are not designed to slow innovation, but to ensure it scales safely.

Saudi Arabia’s guidelines, for example, mandate human oversight for public-sector AI and require transparency measures such as watermarking AI-generated content. Qatar’s central bank has introduced governance rules requiring audits and human review for high-stakes algorithms. These frameworks inevitably influence data flows, encouraging sensitive information to remain within national borders.

While this localization may initially limit free cross-border data movement, it is simultaneously fueling massive investment in regional cloud and data center infrastructure. Over time, regulatory alignment across the GCC, particularly around shared principles of fairness, accountability, and transparency, will enable AI solutions certified in one country to scale regionally. Clear rules reduce uncertainty, giving enterprises and investors confidence to deploy AI at scale.

The Hidden Risks of Autonomous AI

Despite the momentum, risks remain, and some are underestimated. One of the most significant is overconfidence in AI accuracy. Even advanced models can hallucinate or fail, particularly when dealing with local dialects or sparse data. In high-stakes sectors such as security, healthcare, or law enforcement, such errors can have serious consequences. Human oversight is therefore not optional, regardless of how autonomous a system becomes.

Operational fragility is another concern. Many organizations overlook infrastructure dependencies, such as reliance on imported GPUs or insufficient cooling and backup power for data centers. In the Gulf’s climate, these vulnerabilities can quickly become systemic risks. Cybersecurity also takes on new dimensions as AI systems gain autonomy, expanding the attack surface for malicious actors. A compromised AI traffic system or a convincing deepfake could undermine public trust overnight.

Finally, reputational and regulatory backlash remains a risk if AI is misused or deployed without adequate safeguards. A single incident involving biased decision-making or a privacy breach could slow adoption across entire sectors. Rigorous testing, transparency, and fail-safes, the unglamorous aspects of AI, are essential for sustainable progress.

Who Will Lead the GCC AI Race?

By 2026, leadership in the GCC AI landscape will be shaped by a combination of talent, data, sovereign strategy, and investment appetite. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are poised to lead, each leveraging distinct strengths. The UAE’s early-mover advantage, world-class institutions such as MBZUAI, and deep integration of AI into daily life have positioned it as a global reference point for adoption. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, brings unmatched scale, capital, and data assets particularly in energy, making it the region’s AI infrastructure powerhouse.

Other GCC nations will lead in targeted ways. Qatar is emerging as a center for ethical AI and safe deployment, Bahrain as a pioneer in cloud-first government integration, and Oman as a steady builder of digital infrastructure and local talent pipelines. Across industries, government services will continue to drive adoption, while energy and finance lead commercially.

From Oil Wells to “Intel Wells”

Ultimately, the GCC’s AI journey is about more than technology, it’s about redefining economic value creation. The region is moving from oil wells to “intel wells,” treating data and insight as the new strategic resource. At Finder Group AI, our mission is to connect the region’s abundant capital with its brightest innovators responsibly, transparently, and at scale.

By 2026, the global conversation will shift from AI hype to AI habitat. The Gulf will not just be adopting AI, but exporting a new standard, one that balances cutting-edge innovation with trust, governance, and purpose. The rise of the GCC as an AI hub will create opportunities far beyond its borders, shaping the next phase of the global AI economy on the region’s own terms.

-Ends-

About the Author:

Farid Yousefi is a serial entrepreneur and innovator leading the development of Finder Group Ai, an AI-powered venture builder ecosystem based in Dubai. With a strong background in strategy, business development, and technology adoption, his focus is on helping ideas transform into scalable businesses through AI-driven solutions.

His work spans across building and mentoring startups, forging partnerships, and guiding ventures from ideation to growth. He is passionate about creating impact through technology, developing sustainable ecosystems, and supporting founders on their journey through in-depth technical and industry knowledge and expertise and access to a global network of venture capitalists and angel investors to attract investment, and through partnerships at the highest level within government to aid integration and scale rapidly within local territories.

Tech Features

The Infrastructure Is Automated. Why Are the Processes Around It Still Manual?

Published

2 days ago

September 8, 2026

Integrator Web-Editor

Article by Prasanna Rajendran, Vice President – EMEA, Kissflow

Across the Middle East, governments and enterprises are investing heavily in cloud infrastructure to support national digitization agendas, from Vision 2030 in Saudi Arabia to the UAE’s push toward AI-driven government services. Gartner forecasts that IT spending across the Middle East and North Africa will reach $169 billion in 2026, an 8.9 percent increase over 2025, with software spending alone growing 13.9 percent.

Infrastructure as code (IaC) is the practice of defining and provisioning computing infrastructure, including servers, networks, databases, and load balancers, using machine-readable configuration files rather than manual processes or interactive consoles. Rather than logging into a console to click through setup wizards, teams describe their entire infrastructure in version-controlled code that can be reviewed, tested, and deployed like any other software artifact.

For CIOs and IT leaders, this matters because IaC has become the operational standard for any organization running workloads at scale. Grand View Research valued the global IaC market at $1.2 billion in 2025 and projects it to reach $6.1 billion by 2033, a compound annual growth rate of 22.3 percent. That trajectory reflects a clear shift: enterprises are moving from manual, ticket-driven infrastructure management to automated, code-driven provisioning.

What is infrastructure as code?

At its core, IaC means defining resources such as virtual machines, storage volumes, network configurations, security policies, and access controls in declarative or imperative code files. Those files become the authoritative record of what your infrastructure looks like at any moment.

IaC generally follows one of two approaches, depending on whether teams want to define an outcome or prescribe the route to it. Declarative IaC describes the desired end state: you specify what you want, such as three servers, a load balancer, and a database cluster, and the tool works out how to get there. Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, and Azure Bicep all use this method. Imperative IaC instead specifies the exact steps to reach an outcome. You write procedural instructions: create this server, then attach this disk, then configure this network. Ansible and Chef follow that model more closely.

The declarative approach dominates enterprise adoption today because it is easier to maintain and less error-prone. You describe the outcome rather than the procedure, which keeps the code readable even as infrastructure complexity grows.

What separates IaC from traditional infrastructure management is version control. Every change is tracked in Git, reviewed through pull requests, and deployed through automated pipelines. This is the mechanism Gartner points to when it describes IaC as the route to cloud governance and self-service at scale.

Why infrastructure as code matters for enterprise IT

Manual infrastructure management does not scale. When an operations team provisions servers through tickets and console clicks, every environment differs slightly, every deployment carries risk, and every audit turns painful. IaC removes these problems systematically.

Consistency and reproducibility

IaC guarantees that the development, staging, and production environments are consistent. Configuration drift, the slow divergence of environments over time, disappears because every deployment is generated from the same code. When an incident occurs, you can rebuild an environment from scratch in minutes.

Speed and agility

Organizations using IaC provision entire environments in minutes rather than weeks. When business conditions change, whether through a product launch, a capacity spike, or a compliance deadline, IaC lets you respond at the speed of code.

Security and compliance

With IaC, security policies are embedded directly in infrastructure templates. Guardrails apply automatically. Compliance checks run in the CI/CD pipeline before any change reaches production. Security stops being a gate at the end of the process and becomes part of how infrastructure gets built.

Cost efficiency

IaC gives you precise control over resource provisioning. Idle capacity gets identified and decommissioned through code rather than through quarterly manual audits. Cost discipline has grown into a standing function for this reason: 59 percent of the 759 organizations Flexera surveyed for its 2025 State of the Cloud Report now run a dedicated FinOps team, up from 51 percent the year before.

Key infrastructure as code tools for the enterprise

Several tools now anchor enterprise IaC strategy, each suited to a different environment. Terraform and its open-source fork, OpenTofu, remain the dominant choice for cross-cloud work, offering declarative provisioning across multiple clouds using HCL. Organizations standardized on a single cloud often turn to native alternatives instead: AWS CloudFormation for AWS-centric environments, using JSON or YAML, and Azure Bicep for Azure-native deployments. Ansible takes an imperative, YAML-based approach and excels at configuration management and application deployment rather than pure provisioning. Pulumi appeals to developer-led teams by letting them define declarative infrastructure in familiar languages such as Python, TypeScript, or Go.

Common challenges when adopting infrastructure as code

Adopting IaC is not without friction. The most immediate obstacle is usually a skills gap, because IaC asks infrastructure teams to work the way developers do, with version control, code reviews, and CI/CD pipelines. That shift is cultural as much as it is technical, and it requires deliberate investment in training.

State management adds complexity of its own. Declarative tools maintain state files that track current infrastructure, and multi-team environments need remote state backends, locking, and workspace isolation from day one to avoid conflicts.

Legacy system integration is another common obstacle, since not everything can be expressed in code immediately. Most organizations start with new cloud workloads and progressively extend IaC to existing systems through API wrappers.

Governance and drift detection require ongoing discipline. IaC only delivers its full value once it becomes the sole path for infrastructure changes, which makes continuous drift detection and sustained cultural enforcement critical rather than optional.

Where workflow automation fits in an IaC-driven enterprise

Infrastructure as code solves the provisioning problem. Enterprise IT complexity does not stop there. The layer above IaC, covering the processes, approvals, and operational logic that run on top of provisioned infrastructure, is where most organizations still depend on fragmented tools, manual handoffs, and spreadsheet-based tracking. That gap is especially visible across the Middle East, where cloud adoption and ambitious national targets often outpace the operational processes needed to govern them.

Regulatory pressure widens the gap further. Gartner forecasts worldwide sovereign cloud IaaS spending at $80 billion in 2026, a 35.6 percent rise over 2025, with governments as the main buyers. Provisioning infrastructure inside a national boundary is one requirement. Proving that every approval, exception, and access grant on that infrastructure followed a governed path is another, and code alone does not answer it.

This is where workflow automation platforms operate as a digital backbone for enterprise operations. IaC automates the infrastructure layer. A no-code or low-code workflow platform automates the process layer: IT service requests, change management approvals, vendor onboarding, compliance workflows, and the hundreds of cross-functional processes that connect people, systems, and decisions across the enterprise.

For IT leaders across the region pursuing IaC adoption, particularly those operating under strict data residency and regulatory requirements, this kind of platform complements the strategy by giving business teams a way to build and manage operational workflows without adding to the IT backlog. IaC handles your infrastructure. Workflow automation handles everything that runs on it.

See how Kissflow governs the change approvals, access requests, and compliance workflows that sit on top of your cloud infrastructure in a 30-minute demo.

Tech News

Anomali to Address the Next Phase of AI-Led Cyber Defense at GISEC 2026

Published

6 days ago

September 4, 2026

Integrator Web-Editor

Anomali, the leading global Managed Intelligence and Agentic SOC platform, announced its participation at GISEC Global 2026, taking place through 16-18 September at Dubai Exhibition Centre (DEC), Expo City.

The company’s discussions at GISEC will center on Autonomous SOC with Governed AI, Agentic AI, Actionable Threat Intelligence and Unified Security Data Lake capabilities that are changing the manner in which security teams investigate threats, manage workflows and make decisions.

Samer Jadallah, Vice President, Middle East & Africa at Anomali, will represent the company at GISEC and will focus on the growing impact of AI on both attackers and defenders, emerging shifts in the threat landscape, including the need to counter CEO impersonation attacks as well as key challenges facing modern security teams. He will also highlight AI’s role is helping organizations respond more effectively to evolving threats, Anomali’s commitment to the region and ongoing product innovation and plans to expand adoption of the Anomali platform across global enterprises and government organizations.

A key focus at this year’s event will be the changing nature of cyberattacks. As threat actors promptly adopt AI to scale campaigns and further accelerate attacks, security operations centers (SOC) are under growing pressure to process rising volumes of alerts with limited resources. To help with this, Anomali will demonstrate how AI can support analysts in multiple ways like surfacing higher- value insights, reducing manual effort and enabling quicker, informed responses.

Visitors can find Anomali at Booth E156 and Booth A80.

Event: GISEC Global 2026
Booths: E156 and A80
Location: Dubai Exhibition Centre (DEC), Expo City
Dates: 16 th to 18 September 2026
Time: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm GST

Tech News

HONOR BRINGS ITS ALPHA PLAN TO LIFE AT LEAP 2026 WITH THE WORLD’S FIRST ROBOT PHONE AND RENEWED “DARE TO BE” BRAND DIRECTION

Published

7 days ago

September 3, 2026

Integrator Web-Editor

HONOR, a global leading AI device ecosystem company, concluded its participation at LEAP 2026, bringing its “ALPHA PLAN: From Vision to Reality” to life through the world’s first Robot Phone, advancements in robotics, cinematic imaging and connected AI experiences. The participation also marked HONOR’s renewed “Dare to Be” brand direction reflecting its continued transformation from a company predominantly known for smartphones into a broader global AI device ecosystem company.

Commenting on the participation, Lei Kunming, CMO HONOR Middle East & Africa said, “LEAP 2026 showed how HONOR’s ALPHA PLAN is moving from vision to reality. From the world’s first Robot Phone and Robotics to our connected ecosystem, we demonstrated how AI can work more naturally around people.” He added “Our ‘Dare to Be’ direction gives that transformation a stronger identity, with Saudi Arabia remaining central to our growth in AI and digital innovation.”

Bringing the HONOR Booth Experience to Life

Visitors explored HONOR’s expanding ecosystem through interactive experiences spanning sports, gaming, smart office, learning and everyday scenarios.

The booth demonstrated how smartphones, PCs, tablets, wearables and other smart devices can work together to deliver more seamlessly, across work, entertainment, sports and health, reflecting the ALPHA PLAN’s ambition to create a more intelligent, connected and human-centric ecosystem around the user.

Introducing the World’s First Robot Phone

At the centre of HONOR’s showcase was the world’s first Robot Phone, a defining proof point of the ALPHA PLAN and a new category combining AI, robotics and cinematic imaging.

Its integrated robotic gimbal can move, track subjects and respond to its surroundings, enabling more intuitive and proactive content creation. LEAP also marked the Robot Phone’s reveal for the Middle East and Africa, making the region the first overseas market to experience the new category.

HONOR also highlighted its collaboration with ARRI, bringing more than 100 years of professional cinema and image science expertise together with HONOR’s AI and robotics capabilities to make cinematic content creation more accessible to everyday users.

Advancing a Future Built on Human and AI Collaboration

Beyond the Robot Phone, HONOR showcased its ambitions in robotics through HONOR Robotics D1, reinforcing its vision of a future shaped not by humans competing against AI, but by humans working with AI to achieve more. The company also explored the future of AI devices and robotics through its LEAP keynote and panel discussions.

Entering a New “Dare to Be” Era

Reflecting this evolution, HONOR’s renewed“Dare to Be” direction reflects its evolution beyond individual devices towards an open AI ecosystem connecting technologies, industries and lifestyles. Supported by innovations including Agentic OS and AiMAGE, HONOR’s journey progresses from an intelligent phone to an intelligent ecosystem and, ultimately, an intelligent world.

Driving Growth Across MEA

HONOR entered LEAP with strong regional momentum. In H1 2026, the company grew by 35% while the Middle East smartphone market declined by 13%, making HONOR the only leading smartphone brand in the region to grow and the second-largest smartphone brand in the Middle East. This followed 73% year-on-year growth in Q1 2026.

Within this regional growth, Saudi Arabia remains a particularly important market for HONOR, supporting the company’s broader ambitions across AI devices and its connected ecosystem.

Strengthening HONOR’s AIoT Presence in Saudi Arabia

As part of this momentum, Saudi Arabia remains a strategic market for HONOR and an important part of the ALPHA PLAN. The Kingdom is now HONOR’s number one tablet market by share, while its AIoT business has grown by more than 500% and HONOR Earbuds Clip has surpassed 100,000 units sold locally.

Building on this strong foundation, HONOR continues to strengthen its presence through retail, after-sales, local partnerships and deeper engagement with the Kingdom’s technology ecosystem.