Saudi organizations are rapidly increasing their AI investments, positioning the Kingdom among the world’s most advanced markets, according to a new survey by Riverbed. Released ahead of GITEX GLOBAL 2025, The Future of IT Operations in the AI Era report reveals that AI spending in Saudi Arabia grew by around 160% year-on-year. Notably, 26% of Saudi enterprises invested over US$50 million in AI last year, compared to an average of 18% in other markets.
This strong momentum is translating into measurable outcomes. The survey found that 36% of Saudi organisations are fully prepared to implement their AI strategy today, with 78% expecting to reach full readiness within the next three years, a timeline aligned with Vision 2030. More than half (55%) of the respondents said the return on investment from their AIOps projects had already exceeded expectations and an additional 38% cite they have met their original goals.
Behind this success lies a growing focus on data management and accessibility. Almost two-thirds (63%) of Saudi organisations are developing data strategies to support AI across the enterprise. The clear popularity of cloud services reflects the success of the Kingdom’s digital transformation agenda and its ability to attract investment from global hyperscalers such as Microsoft, AWS, Google, and Oracle, who have poured billions into establishing world-class cloud data centres in the country. Currently, AI-related data is held in public cloud environments (31%), on-premises data centres (27%), and private clouds (25%). However, this reliance on private and on-prem environments is expected to decline over the next three years as more organisations move processing to the edge (across branch offices, logistics hubs, and factories) enabling faster and more intelligent operations.
With AI implementation accelerating, visibility and performance management are becoming critical to success. Saudi organisations currently use an average of 13 observability tools supplied by nine different vendors, but 98% are now consolidating these to simplify IT operations and strengthen system performance. Nearly all respondents (95%) agreed that adopting a unified observability platform would help teams identify and resolve operational issues more efficiently. And improving productivity was cited as a higher priority than cost reduction, signalling a focus on performance-led transformation.
The report also highlights how unified communications (UC) tools are central to operations, as IT leaders now spend nearly half (45%) of their work week using UC tools and applications. With 17% of IT help desk tickets related to UC systems and each ticket taking an average of 40 minutes to resolve, businesses are increasingly turning to advanced monitoring solutions. Saudi organisations are also embracing open standards to enhance monitoring and automation. OpenTelemetry is gaining particular traction: 39% of Saudi organisations have already mandated its use, and a further 54% plan to do so within two years. Almost all respondents (98%) agreed that OpenTelemetry is a vital step towards achieving AI-driven automation, while 95% said standardizing data across applications, infrastructure, and user experience is critical to their observability strategy.
“Saudi Arabia is one of the most exciting AI markets in the world right now, with bold government-led initiatives and record levels of investment setting the stage for rapid transformation,” said Moueen Zahreddine, Senior Regional Director – GCC, at Riverbed. “However, to fully capitalize on the momentum of AI, enterprises must overcome the challenge of executing and scaling AI projects across the organization. At Riverbed, we’re helping out customers do exactly that – implementing practical AI solutions as part of an enterprise-wise strategy to enhance digital experiences, improve IT operations, and realize the full potential of AI. At GITEX, we look forward to engaging directly with business and technology leaders to help them accelerate their AI journeys.”
The Riverbed study underscores how Saudi Arabia is moving decisively from experimentation to execution in AI, combining ambitious investment with strategic maturity. As the Kingdom continues its digital transformation journey under Vision 2030, it is setting a new benchmark for the effective integration of AI, data, and performance management in enterprise environments.
Riverbed will participate at GITEX GLOBAL 2025 together with regional distributors StarLink and Mindware and will also have a presence on the stand of Reach Digital.
