Red Hat Survey: UAE Organisations Prepare for Widespread AI Adoption and Upskilling

Red Hat, Inc., the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced new survey results highlighting the prominence of AI for UAE organizations’ IT strategies¹ . The findings reveal UAE organisations anticipate boosting AI investment by an average of 31 % by 2026.²

When asked about their organisation's IT strategy for the next 18 months, AI is one of the top-ranked priorities among 82%³ of respondents, along with security (833%), followed by cost optimisation (81%³), and sovereignty (76%³).

However, 96%⁴ of organisations surveyed report they are not yet driving customer value from their AI investments. 

To overcome these challenges and help turn ambitions to reality, UAE organizations are embracing open source across all areas of IT strategy. The survey shows that 100%¹¹ of UAE IT leaders view open source as vital for cost optimisation¹¹, post-quantum cryptography¹¹, and virtualisation¹¹.

AI a work in progress

One of the highest AI priority of respondents for the next 18 months (83%³) is agentic AI, AI systems that operate with high degrees of autonomy and can execute complex, multi-step tasks with limited human intervention. Enabling broad employee adoption and operationalising AI are also ranked high on the priority to-do list, with 86%³ and 85%³ agreeing respectively.

Retaining and developing the right talent remains a challenge, with AI skills still ranking among the most urgent gaps, as cited by 76%3 of respondents. Within AI specifically , the talent shortage mirrors the target priorities for UAE IT and AI leaders: connecting AI to enterprise data cited by 59% of respondents, effective use of agentic AI cited by 57%, efficient use of AI capabilities cited by 58%, and educating the business to use AI reported by 47%. Almost all (98%¹²) of respondents experience barriers to AI adoption, especially integration challenges with existing systems (36%), data privacy and security concerns (32%), and lack of buy-in from stakeholders (32%).

Additionally, 70%⁶ of respondents report they are experiencing a “shadow AI” problem - i.e., unauthorised use of AI tools by employees.

Confidence tempered by complexity; open source key

Confidence in the UAE’s potential on the global AI stage is high, with 99%⁷ of responding UAE businesses believing the nation is, or will soon become, an AI powerhouse within the next three years⁸. A similar sense of optimism exists in other countries: 99%⁹ of respondents in Spain shared the same view, followed closely by Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands at 98 per cent each, while 83% of businesses in the UK expressed similar trust in their nation's AI trajectory. 

In terms of limiting factors to the UAE’s rise in AI prominence, 62% of respondents cite a lack of computing infrastructure, followed by lack of talent pipeline (52%) and lack of public funding (45%) as the key hold-ups¹⁰.

National data protection and sovereignty goals remain priorities on the IT agenda in the country, with AI adding complexity as another workload that must align to evolving cloud strategies. Barriers to cloud adoption remain as well, with respondents pointing to limited support from leadership (77%³ agree), unclear ROI (72% agree³), employee resistance to change (69% agree³), and lack of skills (69% agree³). Drilling down into cloud sovereignty strategy over the next 18 months, UAE respondents are prioritising operational control and autonomy (86%³), securing the software supply chain (81%³), and flexibility and choice of IT suppliers (86%³).

Supporting Quotes 

Adrian Pickering, regional general manager, MENA, Red Hat:  

“Our latest UAE survey reveals a clear truth: while AI investment is surging, realizing tangible customer value remains a challenge for many organizations. Moving beyond experimentation to deliver lasting customer value from AI means laying the foundation by integrating enterprise knowledge with existing systems.”

“The survey’s indication of the rise of 'shadow AI' highlights both a security risk and a powerful signal of employee innovation. This willingness to explore new tools offers a critical opportunity for leaders to identify and address skills gaps through targeted training. Ultimately, openness and common standards are not just ideals; they are essential for maximizing the value of AI and hybrid cloud investments, fostering collaboration, and driving the flexibility needed for true innovation."

Hans Roth, Senior Vice President & General Manager EMEA, Red Hat: 

“Organisations want greater operational control and IT resiliency to adapt in a world of constant disruption. The survey results, as well as our daily conversations, show sovereignty prominently on the agenda for enterprise’s ongoing cloud strategies and the budding AI opportunity. Open source is central to this shift as it provides businesses with the transparency and flexibility to innovate rapidly without compromise. Red Hat helps enterprises retain choice about where their data lives, how their infrastructure runs and who they partner with. Sovereignty and resilience come from ecosystems, not silos, and Red Hat’s mission is to enable any model, any accelerator, and any cloud – with trust at the heart of it all.”

¹Methodology: the research, conducted by Censuswide, surveyed 909 IT managers and directors (including infrastructure and cloud infrastructure roles) and AI engineers (including software engineers in AI/ML, NLP and LLM engineers and data scientists) from companies with 500+ employees across EMEA (in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UAE and the UK). Of these, 100 are from the UAE.  Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society and follows the MRS code of conduct and ESOMAR principles. Censuswide is also a member of the British Polling Council.

²Almost two-thirds of respondents (61%) expect to increase investment by 21-50% while under one-third expect increases of 5-20% (29%).7% foresee a 51–75% increase, and 3% say they do not plan to increase AI investment.

³Strongly agree’ and ‘Somewhat agree’ responses combined

⁴Inverse of those who selected “Phase 5: Driving customer value” when asked ‘What phase is your organization at with AI adoption, if any? Please select the option that most applies.’

⁵Respondents were asked to select the phase that most applies to their organisation:  

• 27% of UAE respondents are in phase 1 - building awareness of AI

• 28% of UAE respondents are in phase 2 - preparing for AI

• 21% of UAE respondents are in phase 3 - exploring AI use cases

• 20% of UAE respondents are in phase 4 - maximising AI investment

• 4% of UAE respondents are in phase 5 - driving customer value.

When asked about the future, 8% of respondents answered that they hope to be driving customer value in five years time. 

⁶All ‘Yes’ answer options combined

⁷ ‘Yes, my nation is one already’ and ‘Not yet, but my nation has the potential to become one in the next three years’ responses combined

⁸71% of respondents believe the UAE is already a leading global powerhouse of AI, 28% believe it could become one in three years

⁹Spain stood on par with the UAE, with 99% of respondents saying their nation is, or has the potential to become, a global AI powerhouse. This was followed by Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands, each at 98%, and the UK at 83%.

¹⁰Out of subset of respondents who do not think/ are not sure if their nation is, or can become, a leading global powerhouse of AI in the next three years

¹¹‘Very important’ and ‘Somewhat important’ responses combined

¹²Inverse of those who selected “There are no main barriers” when asked ‘What, if anything, are the most significant barriers your organisation faces when adopting AI technologies? (Select up to 3)’