Driven by ambitious government initiatives and successful digital re-hauls since 2021, the GCC public sector is outpacing global peers in digital and AI readiness.
This was among the key takeaways from Boston Consulting Group’s new report, Unlocking Potential: Strategies Driving GCC’s Digital & AI Maturity.
The study explored data from over 200 companies across eight key sectors in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to find out how they leveraged digital and AI strategies to accelerate transformation.
The findings have shown that organisations with mature digital and AI capabilities achieve substantially higher revenue and enterprise value. These future-built companies in the GCC achieve have 2.1x higher market share over peers.
These organisations allocated 2.4x more funding to AI initiatives and dedicated 2.3x higher workforce share to digital and AI transformation in 2024. As a result, they were 1.25x faster in launching digital and AI products to the market and have scaled 2.3x more AI and GenAI solutions across their organisations.
GCC leads in AI adoption
The GCC region is advancing in AI adoption, with 47 per cent leveraging the technology to drive measurable value. The public sector in the GCC stands out for outpacing its global peers in digital and AI readiness.
Financial institutions, technology, and healthcare sectors in the GCC are leading in digital and AI maturity. These digitally mature organisations demonstrate clear competitive advantages. Apart from achieving 2.1x higher market share, they have 25 per cent faster time-to-market of digital and AI products than their less mature counterparts.
Rami Mourtada, Partner and Director, Digital Transformation at BCG, said: “The real imminent opportunity with emerging technologies such as AI is reshaping core business functions. What’s particularly encouraging is seeing many GCC companies, led by public sector entities and financial institutions, rapidly scaling up AI deployment.
“This is about monitoring and learning from AI adoption approaches and about building robust digital-first foundations. Success will depend on how effectively organisations balance innovation with practical implementation, underpinned by integrated capabilities that drive long-term benefit.”
Despite these achievements, the report identifies ongoing opportunities for advancement. While 25 per cent of GCC companies have reached the top two stages of digital and AI maturity – compared to 31 per cent globally – challenges remain in driving organisation-wide AI transformations. These include lack of access to high-quality data, difficulty integrating with existing IT systems, limited availability of talent and skills, and challenges with reimagining workflows and implementing new processes.
As many as 49 per cent of surveyed companies that scored in the mid-range or ‘emerging’ maturity category having succeeded in digital transformations, and yet struggle to scale organisation-wide.
Steps to accelerate digital maturity
Dr Lars Littig, Managing Director and Partner at BCG, said: “The GCC’s digital future hinges not on infrastructure alone, but on the ability to build deep organisational capabilities. Our research shows that digitally mature organisations see threefold returns on their AI investments, yet significant capability gaps remain across sectors.
“To translate ambitious vision into tangible business value, GCC organisations must move beyond surface-level digital adoption and focus on foundational elements – data architecture and talent development. This isn’t just about catching up to global benchmarks; it’s about establishing a sustainable model for digital innovation that leverages the region’s unique strengths and positions the GCC as a global leader in the AI era.”
BCG has five key recommendations to bridge the global maturity gap and accelerate impact…
- Re-align organisational strategy with a digital-first vision to overcome structural barriers like operational agility and talent development.
- Set a bold strategic ambition for AI adoption focused on clear value pathways and guardrails for responsible AI adoption.
- Boost viable people, organisational capabilities, and underlying technology platforms to support ambition and invest in parallel to scale up.
- Maintain a pipeline of continuing innovation pilots to rapidly and effectively adapt to the changing landscape of emerging technologies.
- Prioritise high-profile lighthouse initiatives with high ROI to fund the journey and build momentum for organisation-wide change.
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