While it is inevitable that different markets in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) are at different stages of their evolution with business technological maturity, what 2025 offered was a window into what the future could look like.
With equalizing factors in the form of AI, Sino-US competition vying for position and growth in the region, and the rise of ubiquitous satellite connectivity, many mature market solutions typically seen in North America, Europe and the Far East are now seen as possibilities for numerous key MEA markets that were at risk of falling scandalously behind. MEA is increasingly seen as a key growth region for multinational corporations expanding into the area or having existing operations. AI and cloud technology providers, as well as local technology companies and startups that have relied on their brands to serve many of the national public sector bodies and local business ecosystems, see an excellent opportunity.
What this means in practice is that there is an increasing presence of large-scale data centers, cloud regions and AI infrastructure capable of supporting powerful workloads. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have emerged as leaders: Saudi Arabia’s central AI body, HUMAIN, now has multiple American technology partners; The G42 in the UAE has not only expanded the capacity of AI data centers but has also introduced programs such as Digital Embassies to enable governments to deploy infrastructure at scale, establishing several AI centers in Vietnam, Kenya and across Europe. Qatar also recently created its own artificial intelligence company, Qai. Other markets in MEA will follow suit as they look to quickly coordinate the development and deployment of their AI infrastructure.
Ismail Patel, senior analyst at GlobalData, said: “In these markets and beyond, there is already a serious debate about how AI can be monetized or leveraged to save money, and agent AI is emerging as high on the agenda to automate workflows and drive business processes, government departments and industrial efficiency.”
But in addition to AI, access to cloud computing has grown enormously in MEA, and this is a space where competition between American hyperscalers and Chinese providers is fiercest.
Patel adds: “Competition between the US and China has led to huge training programs dedicated to local MEA students and employees as cloud companies rush to attract the next generation of companies, startups and workers to their technology ecosystems. Additionally, software and LLM models are increasingly tailored to local language support, with moves made by US and Chinese companies not only for Arabic, but also for lesser-known languages and dialects.”