AI in Saudi Arabia: One in Three Businesses Now Uses It. What Comes Next

GASTAT's ICT Access and Usage Survey shows 33.1% of establishments using AI technologies in 2025, compared with 27.6% in 2024. That is an increase of 5.5 percentage points, or about a fifth, in twelve months. It sits within a wider digital shift: the same survey reports near-universal internet access and more than half of establishments using cloud office software and cloud email.

Two cautions apply. First, the survey records whether AI technologies are used, not how deeply. Second, a single year of growth does not make a trend. But the direction is clear: AI is moving from an innovation-team topic to an operational one.

Set against other national statistics, Saudi adoption looks advanced. The UK's Office for National Statistics reports that about 35% of businesses with ten or more employees used at least one AI technology in June 2026. Eurostat puts the EU figure at about 20% of enterprises with ten or more employees in 2025. The surveys define AI use and business populations differently, so these figures should be read as indicative rather than strictly comparable.

For UK and European companies looking at the Gulf, this changes the pitch. Saudi buyers are not waiting to be introduced to AI. Many already use it and will judge suppliers on whether they can make it work inside their operations, in Arabic as well as English, and within local data and regulatory requirements.

Adoption is concentrated where data is already digital and processes are information-heavy. Information and communications leads at 61.1%, followed by financial and insurance activities at 52.9%, education at 51%, transport and storage at 44.4% and professional activities at 43.9%.

The pattern suggests where the next wave of value lies. Sectors with high adoption are moving from experimentation to scale and need integration, governance and change management. Sectors lower down the table, including much of construction, retail and industry, are where first-mover advantage is still available for companies that can show clear use cases.

Survey evidence points to high confidence at the top. In KPMG's 2026 technology report, 46% of the Saudi technology leaders surveyed said they use AI daily in operations, more than double the 21% global average, and 76% expect AI investments to deliver returns within a year. The Saudi sample was small, at 70 respondents, so these figures are directional.

High expectations are an opportunity and a risk. A one-year payback is achievable for well-chosen workflows, but international evidence shows that many organisations struggle to move from pilot to production. If expectations are set by vendor demonstrations rather than by process redesign, disappointment follows and budgets tighten.

The Kingdom's physical AI capacity is expanding. Under Alvarez & Marsal's base case, reported by AGBI, installed data-centre capacity rises from about 410MW to 1GW by 2030, with HUMAIN and other operators commissioning new facilities. Analysys Mason expects accelerated AI data-centre investment across the GCC of USD5–7 billion in 2026 alone.

As compute becomes more available, the bottleneck shifts. Eurostat's data on firms that considered AI but held back shows the same pattern seen worldwide: lack of relevant expertise is the most cited barrier, ahead of legal uncertainty and data protection. In Saudi Arabia the challenge is sharpened by demand for bilingual capability, sector knowledge and familiarity with local data rules.

Karter McKinley helps organisations in the UK, Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf move AI from pilots to measurable return: choosing the workflows, redesigning the process, building the team's capability and tracking results in financial terms. This is information, not investment or legal advice.