At the Adobe AI Forum in Riyadh, new research released by Adobe highlights how businesses across the Middle East are accelerating their adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) — not just in experimentation, but in actual deployment and strategic planning. The findings, drawn from Adobe’s The Middle East Digital Shift: From Vision to Execution report, paint a picture of a region with strong digital momentum, yet facing execution hurdles as organisations work to turn ambition into measurable impact.
Strong AI Momentum Across Industries
According to the research, nearly nine in ten organisations (88%) in the Middle East are already either experimenting with or deploying AI technologies. This rapid uptake underscores how central AI has become to digital transformation strategies across sectors such as finance, retail, telecommunications and customer engagement. Cloud infrastructure is also maturing, with 61% of businesses describing their cloud environments as “very mature”, supporting the foundation for scalable AI and analytics.
Customer Experience as a Growth Driver
Customer experience (CX) has emerged as a primary business driver in the region. A remarkable 85% of brands rated their CX capabilities as either “good” or “excellent”, highlighting the strategic priority companies place on personalised, seamless customer journeys. However, there are challenges — more than half (59%) of organisations struggle to effectively measure the return on investment (ROI) from CX improvements, signalling a gap between strategy and quantifiable outcomes.
Barriers to Impact: Silos and Integration Gaps
Despite widespread AI adoption, confidence in its business impact remains modest. Only 15% of respondents believe AI is currently delivering the greatest impact on profitability and growth. One major barrier is organisational silos: 42% of businesses cite silos as a hindrance to effective personalisation and CX execution. This fragmentation often prevents data, insights, and tools from being fully integrated across functions like marketing, operations, and customer service.
Six Actions to Bridge the Gap Between Vision and Delivery
To help organisations translate digital ambition into tangible results, Adobe’s research outlines six strategic actions:
- Strengthen Digital Foundations – Building unified platforms that integrate customer data, analytics, and AI tools is critical to unlocking long-term value.
- Broaden Transformation Ownership – Digital transformation shouldn’t be confined to IT; cross‑functional leadership is essential for sustained impact.
- Tackle Content Supply Chain Inefficiencies – As AI‑driven personalisation grows, streamlining content creation and delivery becomes increasingly important.
- Scale AI Across the Enterprise – Moving beyond pilots to scale AI tools enterprise‑wide will help organisations maximise ROI.
- Close the CX Measurement Gap – Better measurement tools and integration can help firms quantify the real business value of customer experience initiatives.
- Leverage Cloud Integration for Impact – Mature cloud infrastructures must be tightly integrated with AI and security platforms to drive business goals.
Looking Ahead: A Connected Digital Economy
Wael Fakharany, Director of Middle East and Africa at Adobe, emphasised that digital ambition in the region is high, but that sustainable growth will depend on how well organisations connect their data, teams, and technologies. The research suggests that Middle Eastern businesses that embrace unified, integrated digital strategies are well placed not only to enhance local competitiveness, but to shape the next stage of the global digital economy.
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