38% of UAE and Saudi Firms Have Agentic AI in Production, Highest Globally
Confluent’s report, based on responses by over 4,000 global IT leaders, highlights that the Gulf organizations have cracked the code to sustaining this momentum.
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[Image: Chetan Jha/MITSMR Middle East]
Thirty-eight percent of organizations in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are already running agentic AI in production. With this figure, the two emerge as one of the leading markets globally in deploying agentic AI solutions.
According to Confluent’s 2026 Data Streaming Report, the figures are among the highest recorded globally.
The region is also strategically thinking about digital infrastructure. Notably, in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, 90% and 88% of respondents, respectively, rank data streaming as a strategic business priority, placing it above AI and machine learning technologies.
However, nearly three-quarters of IT leaders in both countries reported facing at least three major obstacles to AI adoption: insufficient infrastructure for real-time data processing, uncertainty around data lineage, timeliness and quality, and insufficient AI and data skills and expertise. Data infrastructure and quality is seen as a specific challenge for agentic AI deployment by over 66% respondents in both markets.
“Most organizations do not have an AI investment problem; they have a data problem. AI systems depend on fresh, accurate, and contextual information, but too many are still being built on fragmented data, batch processes, and infrastructure that was not designed for continuous intelligence,” said Shaun Clowes, Chief Product Officer, Confluent.
The report, drawn from feedback from more than 4,000 global IT leaders, shows that Gulf organizations have figured out how to maintain this momentum. It reveals that 95% of IT leaders in these markets believe data streaming platforms can speed up AI adoption, and the same percentage expect data streaming to enhance the effects of their AI investments.
“What the UAE and Saudi Arabia data tells us is genuinely encouraging. These are markets that have moved decisively from AI experimentation into deployment, and their IT leaders have a clear view of what comes next. The focus on data streaming as a strategic priority reflects an understanding that sustaining AI performance at scale requires the right data infrastructure underneath it,” said Karim Azar, AVP & GM, Confluent Middle East, adding that the Middle East is well-positioned to lead that next phase.
