Tealium hosted its regional event, “AI Meets ROI: Customer Data Strategies to Accelerate Growth,” in Dubai. The gathering united government stakeholders, enterprise leaders, and digital innovators to examine how high-quality, real-time customer data can drive business results from AI investments. With regional digital transformation accelerating, the event explored how organizations can translate AI experimentation into sustainable growth, operational efficiency, and personalized customer experiences.
The event featured a keynote from Ali Behnam, Co-Founder of Tealium and Guillaume Thfoin, Chief Data Officer at Schneider Electric, who shared practical guidance on building enterprise-wide AI programs. This comes at a pivotal time, with AI’s contribution to Middle Eastern economies expected to grow from 20% to 34% by 2030, underscoring the region’s rapid digital acceleration.
“We are proud to invest in the UAE, not just by expanding our presence, but by enabling enterprises to thrive in the age of AI, responsibly and in full alignment with local data governance,” said Ali Behnam, Co-Founder of Tealium. “AI is only as effective as the data that powers it, and we’re here to help businesses activate their data with trust and precision. Our latest research shows that 81% of CDP users gain a competitive edge in AI initiatives, underlining the need for a real-time, consented data foundation.”
Tealium has been recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Customer Data Platforms for two consecutive years, a testament to its innovation, scalability, and global impact. It’s also one of the first platforms to integrate with MCP, the industry-standard framework built by Anthropic.
The company’s AI Innovation strategy helps organizations overcome core challenges in AI adoption, from fragmented data systems to compliance risk. Its platform prepares, transforms, and labels customer data in real-time, ensuring it is AI-ready and compliant before it ever reaches a model. With 42% of companies in the UAE alone already leveraging AI in their business operations, companies face mounting pressure to deliver measurable value from their AI efforts. Tealium’s localized offering supports this by allowing regional brands to activate AI insights across their digital ecosystems without additional data fees, accelerating time-to-value while staying compliant.
By integrating AI models directly into customer engagement touchpoints, Tealium enables businesses to operationalize insights instantly. Real-time activation engines allow for AI-generated recommendations to be delivered at scale across marketing, commerce, and service platforms. With 84% of Tealium users stating that a CDP makes AI projects easier, the company’s focus is to simplify, connect, and activate data in real-time so organizations can realize ROI from AI, faster and with greater confidence. Aligned with its broader investment in the Middle East, Tealium will enable data residency capabilities on AWS data centers in the UAE, ensuring customers benefit from localized data storage, improved latency, and strict compliance with data governance frameworks.
Tealium has been locally established in the Middle East since 2018, with regional operations headquartered in Dubai and managed by Shadi Hatoum, Sales Director for MEA. Since then, Tealium has expanded its footprint across key markets including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey, supporting leading enterprises in unifying customer data and driving real-time personalization at scale. The company remains focused on forging strong regional partnerships and supporting both public and private sector organizations as they advance their data and AI capabilities.
