Unlocking Value: AI for Resilient Growth in MENA
As the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) navigates a more uncertain global landscape, strengthening economic resilience while sustaining growth has become a central priority. In this context, artificial intelligence is emerging as a powerful enabler, offering new ways to enhance productivity, optimize resource use and unlock long-term value.
As the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) navigates a more uncertain global landscape, strengthening economic resilience while sustaining growth has become a central priority. In this context, artificial intelligence is emerging as a powerful enabler, offering new ways to enhance productivity, optimize resource use and unlock long-term value.
This report moves beyond theory, drawing on real-world use cases developed with leading regional institutions, including First Abu Dhabi Bank, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Bahrain’s Ministry of Sustainable Development and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Economy and Planning. Through these collaborations, five AI prototypes were built to synthesize disparate data in relation to sustainable finance decision-making, predict climate hazards in energy value chains, translate ESG data into strategic performance intelligence, unlock financing opportunities for SMEs and unlock cross-sector collaboration.
Unlocking Value: AI for Resilient Growth in MENA distils these experiences into replicable models and pathways for implementation. While the potential economic contribution of AI is significant for the MENA region, realizing it will depend on overcoming persistent barriers to scale, including implementation constraints, fragmented efforts and institutional capacity gaps.