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TRENDS IN AI COMPLIANCE INFLUENCING HOW GCC COMPANIES OPERATE

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Across the GCC, national growth strategies, with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, the UAE’s National AI Strategy 2031, and Qatar’s national roadmap, place AI at the centre of economic diversification. McKinsey estimates AI adoption at roughly 84% across GCC organisations, with a potential $320 billion economic impact for the Middle East by 2030. As deployment accelerates, regulatory compliance is a defining factor separating ambition from sustainable scale. Shaffra, an AI research and applications company building autonomous AI teams for enterprises and governments, sees six clear shifts reshaping how companies operate.

1. Regulation is accelerating adoption in high-stakes sectors

Government entities, financial services, telecom, aviation, and large semi-government organisations are moving fastest. These sectors operate at scale, face strict efficiency mandates, and function under constant regulatory oversight. Healthcare and energy are advancing more cautiously due to safety and data sensitivity. In many cases, the more regulated the industry, the faster AI deployment progresses. However, rapid scaling also exposes governance weaknesses, particularly where documentation, ownership, and oversight mechanisms are underdeveloped.

2. Compliance is prerequisite for scale

Over the past year, 88% of Middle East CEOs have reported generative AI uptake. Today, organisations increasingly require audit trails, explainability, clear data lineage and residency controls, defined performance thresholds, and enforceable human oversight mechanisms. With one in four Middle East consumers citing privacy as a primary concern, compliance is being treated as a post-deployment validation exercise; it is a structural requirement for scaling AI responsibly.

3. Sovereign AI and data residency are shaping architecture

AI governance in the GCC is being influenced less by standalone AI laws and more by data protection and cybersecurity frameworks. The UAE’s federal data protection law, Saudi Arabia’s PDPL under SDAIA, and Oman’s PDPL reinforce lawful processing and cross-border controls. In highly regulated sectors such as banking, healthcare, energy, and telecommunications, data residency and local control over models are strategic imperatives. Sovereign AI is evolving from a policy ambition into an operational requirement affecting infrastructure, vendor selection, and system design.

4. Human accountability is being reasserted

When organisations deploy AI without defining who owns the decision, when human escalation is required, and what the system is permitted or restricted from doing, they create either over-reliance or under-utilisation. Without clearly defined ownership and documented review controls, accountability weakens and regulatory exposure increases.

For instance, DIFC reinforces responsible AI use in personal data processing. High-impact decisions involving legal standing, fraud, employment, healthcare guidance, or public sector determinations that affect citizens need to involve human oversight, while AI handles speed, consistency, and automation of repetitive tasks. High-impact decisions should involve accountable human oversight.

5. Governance maturity slows deployment activity

Many organisations are AI-active but still developing governance maturity. Common governance gaps are structural rather than technical. Multiple pilots often run in parallel, tool adoption is fragmented, and accountability is split across IT, legal, risk, and business functions. Growing enterprises often lack a central AI governance owner, a comprehensive use-case inventory, consistent vendor and model risk assessment, and formal escalation protocols. Policies may exist at the board level, yet it is not consistently embedded into day-to-day operations. Addressing this gap requires governance to be built into workflows from the outset.

6. Continuous auditing is discipline

Studies indicate that a majority of ML models degrade over time, through model drift, hidden bias, or misuse vulnerabilities. Initial audits frequently reveal undocumented use cases, weak access segmentation, insufficient logging, and unclear review protocols. Effective governance requires compliance with international and local data residency rules, structured risk tiering, data lineage validation, access controls, bias testing, performance benchmarking, and defined incident response procedures. High-impact systems warrant quarterly reviews supported by continuous monitoring, while lower-risk applications still require periodic reassessment. Governance is increasingly measured through evidence rather than policy statements. Boards are asking for dashboards, logs, and audit artefacts — not policy PDFs.

Governance is being considered as part of AI infrastructure. Compliance frameworks are evolving into operational architecture embedded within systems, workflows, and accountability models. The organisations that will lead in the GCC are those that design governance at the same time they design capability, ensuring AI scales with discipline rather than risk.

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PNY ANNOUNCES STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH F5 TO ACCELERATE THE ADOPTION OF SECURE, HIGH-PERFORMANCE INFRASTRUCTURE IN EMEA

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PNY Technologies, a leading distributor of technology solutions and long-standing NVIDIA partner, today announced a partnership with F5, the global leader in delivering and securing

This agreement aims to strengthen access for enterprises across the EMEA region to advanced solutions designed to optimise, secure, and accelerate applications and IT infrastructures.

As AI adoption continues to accelerate, performance, data flow management, and application security are becoming critical priorities. Through this partnership, the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP) will complement PNY’s AI Factory ecosystem by providing advanced capabilities for traffic management, application security, and performance optimisation across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.

PNY will leverage its technical expertise, partner network, and logistics capabilities to facilitate the deployment of F5 ADSP solutions for enterprises, system integrators, and service providers throughout the region.

“Collaboration between PNY, a specialist distributor of NVIDIA AI Factory solutions across the EMEA region, and F5 represents a major step forward for AI-dedicated infrastructure,” said Laurent Chapoulaud, VP Marketing at PNY. “Together, we optimise GPU environments through accelerated data flows and enhanced application security. This synergy between infrastructure and intelligent traffic management enables the deployment of AI architectures that are high-performance, resilient, and scalable.”

“This partnership brings together complementary strengths that directly benefit our partners and customers,” said Nasser El Abdouli, Regional VP EMEA Channel Sales, F5. “PNY’s longstanding partnership with NVIDIA, combined with F5’s growing AI-focused application delivery and security offerings, allows us to help partners capably respond to the rapidly increasing demand for secure and scalable AI infrastructure across EMEA.”

Through this collaboration, PNY and F5 aim to support enterprises in their strategic initiatives related to hybrid multicloud, cybersecurity, and application performance optimisation, while simplifying access to next-generation technologies.

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MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT DRIVING A SURGE IN SCAMS, DEEPFAKES, AND GOVERNMENT IMPERSONATION

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Cybercriminals don’t wait for the dust to settle. As conflict escalates across the Middle East, a parallel threat has emerged targeting ordinary people through their inboxes and social media feeds.

On 4 March, the UAE Ministry of Interior warned the public about fraudulent emails impersonating government emergency services, falsely claiming that residents must complete a mandatory registration form to receive state support or insurance coverage. The emails bore hallmarks of official government communications, making them convincingly deceptive. They are designed to exploit fear, urgency, and the instinct to comply with perceived authority. These messages are already circulating.

Alongside financial scams, verified fact-checkers have identified AI-generated and mislabelled footage circulating online as supposed evidence of attacks in the UAE. This includes video from Bahrain that was picked up by international media outlets and incorrectly broadcast as a Dubai drone strike. Fabricated videos of the Burj Khalifa collapsing, AI-generated missile strike imagery, and decade-old footage repackaged as current events have also circulated widely. In another example, a supposed “before and after” satellite image of Dubai showing smoke rising over the city was mislabelled — the image was actually from Sharjah, the neighbouring emirate. In many cases, the content spread faster than the corrections. Dubai Police have warned that sharing unverified information can carry criminal penalties under UAE law, including fines of no less than AED 200,000. Despite these warnings, the flow of misleading content has not slowed.

KnowBe4 warns patterns observed during previous conflicts and crises, including the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, the public should also expect charity and donation scams exploiting humanitarian concern, phishing emails disguised as embassy or government alerts, and deepfake imagery engineered to provoke fear or spread disinformation.

Dr. Martin Kraemer, CISO Advisor at KnowBe4 said, “Crises are the most reliable recruitment tool bad actors have. When people are frightened and searching for information, they are not necessarily looking for the truth. They are looking for confirmation of what they already fear. That is exactly what scammers and disinformation actors exploit. What we are seeing right now, fake government emergency emails, mislabelled footage, AI-generated imagery, is not random. It is targeted, and it is designed to exploit the gap between what people feel and what they know. The antidote is not panic. It is discipline: pause, question the source, and go directly to official channels before acting on anything. That’s precisely how governments and organizations are educating people to react in stressful situations.”

What the Public Can Do Right Now

KnowBe4 urges residents, travellers, and anyone following events in the region to apply the following principles:

  • Treat urgency as a warning sign. Any message that pressures you to act quickly, register now, donate immediately, confirm your details before midnight, is likely designed to stop you thinking clearly.
  • Verify before you share. Before forwarding footage or information, check whether it has been verified by a reputable news outlet or official source. Reverse image searches take seconds and can prevent significant harm.
  • Go directly to official sources. If you receive communications claiming to be from a government ministry, embassy, or emergency service, navigate directly to their official website rather than clicking any link in the message.
  • Question what you see. AI-generated imagery has reached a level of quality where video alone is no longer reliable evidence. Look for verification from multiple credible sources before drawing conclusions.
  • Report suspicious communications. In the UAE, suspected scam emails or messages should be reported to the relevant authorities. Do not engage with the sender.
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ALTERYX ACCELERATES ITS NEXT PHASE OF GROWTH WITH AI-READY DATA AND AUTOMATION AT ENTERPRISE SCALE

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Alteryx a leading AI-ready data and analytics company, has announced its next phase of growth, surpassing $1 billion in ARR and powering more than 380 million automated workflows annually. As enterprises shift from AI experimentation to full-scale execution, demand for trusted automation and AI-ready data has never been higher. With Alteryx One, organizations are operationalizing AI responsibly and accelerating enterprise-scale decision-making.

Enterprises continue to invest heavily in AI, with 89% planning to maintain or increase spending in 2026, as generative and agentic AI technologies promise a transformative impact. Yet trust remains a critical barrier: 28% of organizations report limited or no confidence in the accuracy and quality of their data. In the UAE alone, 94% of data leaders say they lack complete visibility into AI decision-making processes. Reliable data and repeatable workflows have become the foundation for operationalizing AI successfully.

To address these challenges, Alteryx One brings together this strategy — a single platform trusted by thousands of customers that connects data, business context, and AI for insights. 

Scaling AI and Automation with Alteryx One

McKinsey & Company puts AI adoption at ~84% across surveyed orgs in the Middle East region. Against this backdrop, data remains the defining factor. As per Alteryx research, nearly half (49%) of leaders cite high-quality, accessible, and well-governed data as the top requirement for AI to reach its full potential. To meet this, Alteryx One provides a trusted logic layer, a governed, repeatable workflow that captures business logic, preserves lineage, and produces AI-ready outputs.

Adoption of Alteryx One is accelerating, with thousands of customers upgrading to the new, simplified edition pricing model, making it easier to access advanced AI and automation capabilities. Built-in enterprise security and governance provide the controls organizations need to scale. By seamlessly connecting to enterprise data sources, AI models, and business applications, Alteryx One delivers trusted, governed data wherever it’s needed. 

Andy MacMillan, CEO of Alteryx, said: “When automation becomes agentic, inconsistency is no longer just inefficient. It becomes an enterprise risk. AI requires a governed and repeatable logic layer. Without that foundation, organizations don’t just move faster — they scale risk faster than productivity. Alteryx is purpose-built for this next phase, giving enterprises the control, transparency, and confidence to operationalize AI, and giving lines of business the flexibility they need to adapt and change.”

In 2025, Alteryx also celebrated 10 years of its global Community, which now includes more than 750,000 members worldwide. Community members have shared thousands of peer-driven solutions, workflows, and best practices, helping organizations accelerate onboarding, scale analytics initiatives faster, and maximize the value of Alteryx One.

Automation at Enterprise Scale

The need for reliable, scalable automation has never been more evident. In 2025, Alteryx customers executed more than 380 million automated workflows, up from more than 260 million in 2023, highlighting how organizations are moving beyond experimentation to governed, enterprise-wide automation that operationalizes analytics. 

Alteryx enables organizations to extend automation into new generative AI use cases while maintaining explainable, auditable outputs aligned with enterprise compliance standards. Users can interact with data using natural language, accelerate model development, and embed AI-driven insights directly into trusted workflows — helping organizations scale innovation without sacrificing control.

Business Performance 

In 2025, the company surpassed $1 billion in ARR, signaling strong enterprise adoption and long-term customer commitment. Alteryx was also recognized in G2’s 2026 Best Software Awards for Best Analytics Software Products.

In parallel, Alteryx has expanded its cloud data platform ecosystem, including a deepened partnership with Google Cloud that enables customers to work directly with cloud-scale data and accelerate analytics and AI initiatives in modern cloud environments.

The company also introduced a refreshed brand identity reflecting its evolution into a unified platform for AI-powered analytics and enterprise-scale automation. With Alteryx One at the center, the company is redefining how enterprises scale AI and automation responsibly, providing the trusted foundation needed to drive intelligent outcomes.

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