Across the Gulf, 85% of organisations plan to increase AI spending this year, with UAE companies leading the charge. Yet the same firms now face a problem that no amount of investment can solve: their own employees won’t embrace the technology.
A report released Saturday by Roland Berger Middle East reveals a striking paradox. UAE organisations have built governance frameworks, appointed ethics boards, and embedded AI into strategic plans at rates that outpace regional peers. Then they hit a behavioral wall.
Resistance to change now blocks progress at 42% of organisations surveyed. Cross-functional silos trip up another 40%. Weak performance management hampers 39%.
The technology isn’t the issue. The people are.
Roland Berger’s study, titled “AI across the Gulf: From ambition to scalable impact,” surveyed senior decision makers across the GCC in late 2025. Nearly 80% confirmed that AI had graduated from innovation talking point to core business priority, formally embedded in strategic plans. Generative AI emerged as the dominant focus, cited by 35% of respondents—a reflection of the technology’s ability to deliver visible returns quickly.
Improving customer and citizen experience ranked as the top priority for 46% of those surveyed. That signals a shift away from back-office experimentation toward frontline transformation, where the stakes are higher and the scrutiny more intense.
On governance, UAE organisations set the regional standard. Three in ten now operate dedicated AI ethics or compliance boards. A further 39% have embedded review processes into existing structures. More than two-thirds have adopted centralised or hybrid operating models, creating the organisational scaffolding needed to scale AI beyond isolated pilots.
Yet even with structures in place, execution falters.
The constraints aren’t technical. They’re cultural. Employees resist new workflows. Departments hoard data and refuse to collaborate. Performance metrics fail to reward AI adoption, leaving managers with little incentive to push teams toward unfamiliar tools.
Public sector organisations continue to outpace private firms, driven by digital government mandates and national AI strategies that date back nearly a decade. The UAE government’s early investment in AI initiatives created momentum that private companies are still working to match.
Nizar Hneini, managing director and head of digital and services at Roland Berger Middle East, framed the challenge bluntly. “The UAE has built strong momentum in AI adoption, supported by early national leadership and enterprise investment. The next challenge is behavioral: strengthening adoption, collaboration and accountability to fully unlock the value that existing structures already enable.”
The report maps five steps to bridge the gap between ambition and operational impact: organisation-wide readiness assessments that identify behavioral friction points, business-led implementation roadmaps with clear ownership and key performance indicators, strengthened data foundations and machine learning operations infrastructure, cross-functional delivery teams supported by central AI centres of excellence, and structured change management programmes designed to embed AI into daily workflows.
That final point—change management—is where most organisations stumble. Building an ethics board is straightforward. Convincing a sales team to trust an AI recommendation engine is not.
The broader GCC context adds urgency. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 has channeled billions into digital transformation, creating competitive pressure across the region. Other Gulf states are accelerating their own AI programmes, backed by sovereign wealth funds and government directives. The UAE’s early lead in governance and strategy could evaporate if execution continues to lag.
Roland Berger, founded in 1967 and headquartered in Munich, generated revenues of roughly €1bn in 2024. The consultancy has positioned sustainability and digital transformation as core pillars of its work, with the Middle East practice focusing heavily on public sector modernisation and AI readiness.
The 2026 budget increases signal continued confidence in AI’s potential. Organisations aren’t retreating. They’re doubling down, betting that the behavioral barriers can be overcome with the right combination of incentives, training, and leadership.
Whether those bets pay off will depend less on the sophistication of the algorithms and more on the willingness of middle managers and frontline staff to change how they work. The technology is ready. The question is whether the organisations are.