FEATURE of digital maturity across the region. For MEA CIOs, embedding these tools is not only about operational efficiency, but also about enabling innovation, supporting economic diversification and building resilient digital foundations aligned with regional growth priorities.
Simon de la Rey, CIO at Platcorp:
As CIOs enter Q1 2026, the focus is no longer on experimenting with digital tools, but on embedding them end-to-end across core operations to deliver measurable business outcomes. In African markets where manual processes are constraining growth, digitisation at scale is a key priority for all CIOs. We are completing the transition from paper-based and manual workflows to fully digital customer journeys across everything from underwriting to customer service, to reduce turnaround time, lower operational risk and build the data backbone that we need to serve our customers efficiently.
CIOs across the Middle East and Africa are increasingly focused on embedding advanced digital tools at the core of their organisations.
CIOs are prioritising AI-assisted tools that improve frontline productivity, which in our case involves supporting our branch teams and contact centres with everything from document and ID verification to smarter collections prioritisation. The emphasis is on consistency, speed and improved decision making across the entire business.
Another priority for Q1 is smarter credit decisioning and portfolio optimisation, which
36
INTELLIGENT CIO MIDDLE EAST www. intelligentcio. com