As AI quickly evolves from a set of powerful tools to a central component of the competitive enterprise, it is vital for enterprises in the UAE to understand the opportunities and challenges presented by the technology if they are to fully leverage its potential, according to 2026 predictions from experts across SAP.
Marwan Zeineddine, Managing Director, SAP UAE, said: “Organizations must prepare for a more deliberate phase of AI adoption, one that is built into core systems rather than layered on top of them. As the UAE advances its National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031, enterprises will increasingly need to align innovation with sovereign AI frameworks and infrastructure investments to ensure AI supports long-term economic resilience and operational scale.”
With 2026 set to be a pivotal year for AI in the UAE and wider Middle East, Zeineddine shared five themes he says will define enterprise AI in the year ahead.
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Organizations that thrive in the UAE will be those that recognize this shift and build an enterprise that is purpose-built for AI, while also investing in modern cloud applications that harmonize data across the entire business, because unified data means AI’s outcomes are more accurate and relevant. This intensifies the shift from globalized one-size-fits-all cloud to regionally compliant, AI-powered enterprise platforms.
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In 2026, AI will move from a supporting tool to a fundamental pillar of the enterprise. Among the key developments organizations must leverage in 2026 are specialized foundation models optimized for specific data types and domains. By learning directly from enterprise data structures, these models are expected to accelerate the development of predictive use cases compared with classical machine learning approaches. For organizations in the UAE, this could shorten the time required to deploy capabilities such as forecasting, anomaly detection, and optimization across autonomous ERP, finance, manufacturing, and supply chain environments.
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Software evolves toward AI-native architecture. In 2026, organizations will shift from enhancing existing AI applications and processes to AI-native architectures, which will fully realize the promise of modern AI. Enterprise applications will increasingly be built natively around AI capabilities, featuring user experiences designed for multi-model, natural language interaction, and allowing AI agents to reason through complex processes.
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Sovereign AI requirements reshape enterprise platforms. Digital sovereignty has become an important focus of the UAE’s national policy agenda, essential for safeguarding sensitive data locally while fostering the technological autonomy required to build a resilient, AI-driven economy independent of foreign infrastructure. These models will power high-value enterprise AI use cases including the simulation of environments, the creation of synthetic training data, and digital twins.
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Agentic governance becomes mission-critical. As AI agents become more autonomous, organizations will need governance models that address how agents are deployed, monitored, constrained by policy, and reviewed over time. The organizational shift will prove profound, from viewing AI as an independent tool to managing agents as digital coworkers requiring onboarding, performance reviews, and continuous improvement. The “agent sprawl” challenge will mirror previous shadow IT crises, but with higher stakes given agents’ autonomous decision-making capabilities.
