INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGY

LEADERSHIP

In the Middle East, where organisations are accelerating digital transformation and embedding AI into core business priorities, the findings highlight the growing need for leadership teams that can connect technology, talent and governance to drive measurable business value.

Lula Mohanty, Managing Partner, Middle East and Africa, IBM Consulting

As AI becomes more embedded across business functions, the regional findings reinforce the need to redesign leadership models, workflows and governance to scale AI responsibly across the enterprise.

Based on the Middle East findings from the annual IBM CEO study, which surveyed 2,000 CEOs globally, AI’ s growing role in the enterprise is prompting on CEOs to rethink how leadership teams operate, how decisions get made and how organisations are structured. responsibly. This balance of technology, talent and governance will be critical as businesses look to scale AI with trust and measurable value.”

Among the key Middle East findings, 67 % of surveyed organisations have a Chief AI Officer in 2026. In addition, 89 % of CEOs say they are actively embedding AI across multiple workflows to optimise end-to-end efficiency and effectiveness, while 68 % of surveyed CEOs say they are comfortable making major strategic decisions based on AI-generated input. Furthermore, 85 % of respondents agree that AI sovereignty is essential to business strategy, underscoring the importance of having the right controls as AI plays a larger enterprise-wide role. However, surveyed CEOs say only 25 % of the workforce is using AI regularly as part of their job, despite 81 % believing their employees have the skills to collaborate with AI.

New challenges are also demanding different kinds of leadership for Middle East CEOs. Some 86 % of respondents say all functional leaders must become technology experts in their domain, signalling that AI accountability is expanding beyond specialised roles.

Among organisations with a CAIO, all surveyed CEOs expect the influence of the role to increase by 2030, alongside rising influence across every member of the C-suite. Meanwhile, 54 % of surveyed CEOs say the CHRO’ s influence will increase over the next few years.

As Middle East CEOs turn to AI-driven decisions, governance and controls are becoming more critical. By 2030, surveyed CEOs expect 48 % of operational decisions where consistency and guardrails can be codified will be made by AI without human intervention, compared to 25 % today.

Middle East organisations are also betting on people to drive AI success. Some 85 % of CEOs surveyed say AI success depends more on people’ s adoption than technology. Between 2026 and 2028, respondents expect 29 % of employees to require reskilling for a different role and 54 % to need upskilling to perform their current role more effectively. In addition, 69 % of respondents say talent and technology leadership roles are converging, suggesting tighter integration between talent, technology and enterprise strategy. •

“ Across the Middle East, CEOs are moving from AI experimentation to enterprisewide transformation,” said Lula Mohanty, Managing Partner, Middle East and Africa, IBM Consulting.“ The organisations seeing the greatest impact are not treating AI as a standalone technology initiative. They are redesigning how leadership teams operate, how decisions are made and how people are empowered to adopt AI

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