38% of UAE, Saudi Firms Already Run Agentic AI in Production

DUBAI — The UAE and Saudi Arabia are emerging among the world’s most advanced markets for agentic artificial intelligence deployment, with 38% of organisations already running AI agents in live production environments, according to Confluent’s 2026 Data Streaming Report.

The study, which surveyed more than 4,600 technology leaders worldwide, found that the Gulf’s rapid AI adoption is being matched by a growing focus on the real-time data infrastructure needed to sustain it at scale. Industry reporting on the study places the UAE and Saudi Arabia among the highest markets globally for production deployment of agentic AI.

In both countries, 95% of technology leaders believe data streaming platforms can accelerate AI adoption, while an equal proportion expect the technology to increase the overall impact of their AI investments.

Data streaming platforms allow organisations to continuously collect, process and analyse information as events occur, rather than waiting for data to be stored and processed in batches.

The technology is also moving higher on corporate investment agendas. 90% of respondents in the UAE and 88% in Saudi Arabia ranked data streaming as a major strategic business priority, placing it ahead of general AI and machine-learning technologies.

Globally, 88% of technology leaders classify data streaming platforms as a high investment priority, according to the report. Half of surveyed organisations said they had achieved a return of at least five times their investment, while 88% reported returns of two times or more.

Despite the Gulf’s rapid progress, significant barriers remain. Nearly three in four technology leaders across the two markets reported facing at least three major challenges to AI adoption.

The most common obstacles include inadequate infrastructure for processing data in real time, uncertainty over data quality and lineage, and shortages of specialised data skills. More than 66% also identified data infrastructure and quality as specific barriers to scaling agentic AI.

The findings suggest the next stage of Gulf AI development will depend increasingly on the quality, speed and governance of enterprise data rather than access to AI models alone.

Confluent is now part of IBM, following completion of IBM’s acquisition of the data-streaming company.