Artificial intelligence is moving from an experimental tool to a core component of the marketing technology stack across the Gulf. For marketers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the wider GCC, the shift is not simply about using generative AI to write copy or create images. It is increasingly about connecting customer data, media buying, content, analytics, personalization, and automation into a more intelligent marketing system.
The opportunity is being created by the rapid expansion of the region’s digital advertising economy. IAB MENA’s latest digital adspend report put MENA digital advertising spend at $6.95 billion in 2024, up 19.8% year on year, with Saudi Arabia growing faster than the regional market at 23.5%. IAB MENA subsequently reported that the market reached $8.185 billion in 2025, representing another 17.8% annual increase.
That expansion is creating fertile ground for martech: the software and data infrastructure that allows brands to identify audiences, automate campaigns, personalise experiences and measure outcomes.
From content creation to the marketing operating system
The first wave of AI adoption in GCC marketing has largely been tactical. Ipsos and Advertising Business Group’s 2025 study found that 96% of surveyed marketing and advertising professionals in the UAE and Saudi Arabia had used AI tools, but only 26% were using them regularly. Meanwhile, 73% of companies were integrating AI, predominantly for content creation rather than strategic planning.
The implication is important: AI adoption is high, but AI maturity is still developing.
This mirrors the broader GCC picture. McKinsey’s 2025 State of AI in the GCC report found that 84% of surveyed GCC organisations had adopted AI in at least one business function, compared with 62% in 2023. Yet only 31% said they had reached a stage where AI was being scaled or fully deployed across the organisation, while just 11% qualified as “value realisers”—organisations that had scaled AI and could attribute at least 5% of earnings to it.
Marketing and sales are among the GCC functions where AI is most frequently deployed. This is logical: marketing has abundant customer data, measurable outcomes and repetitive processes that lend themselves to automation.
The next stage is therefore likely to be less about standalone AI tools and more about AI-enabled martech stacks.
The rise of intelligent personalisation
One of the biggest opportunities for GCC brands is personalization at scale.
Consumers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE are already highly digital. Deloitte’s Digital Consumer Trends 2025 research, based on 2,000 consumers aged 18–50 across the two markets, found that around 58% had used generative AI applications, while 73% had made a purchase through social media during the previous year.
For marketers, this creates a powerful convergence between AI, social commerce, CRM, customer-data platforms and marketing automation.
Instead of segmenting customers into broad categories such as “high-value customers” or “Gen Z”, AI can increasingly identify behavioural patterns in real time and determine which message, product, offer, channel or moment is most likely to generate a response.
This is particularly relevant to the GCC’s multilingual and culturally diverse markets. Arabic-first content, regional dialects, local cultural references and different consumer behaviours across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait make blanket personalisation less effective. AI can potentially allow brands to create and optimise many more variations without proportionately increasing production costs.
Martech’s next battleground: AI agents
The most consequential development may be the emergence of agentic AI inside marketing platforms.
Gartner’s 2025 research found that 81% of marketing technology leaders were either piloting or had already implemented AI-agent initiatives. Among those organisations, 89% expected significant business benefits. The leading use cases included content and marketing-asset production, asset enrichment, and campaign management and optimization.
For GCC marketers, this points towards a future in which an AI agent does more than recommend a campaign. It could potentially analyse performance, adjust audiences, generate creative variants, redistribute budgets and trigger customer journeys across multiple platforms.
But the technology stack needs to be ready.
Gartner’s 2025 Marketing Technology Survey found that only 49% of martech capabilities were being actively utilised, highlighting a problem that AI alone cannot solve: companies can accumulate technology without actually integrating it into their workflows.
Data, trust and the GCC advantage
The biggest constraint may therefore be data rather than AI.
Roland Berger’s 2026 GCC AI study found that four in five GCC organisations have an AI strategy, but only 34% have an enterprise-wide data foundation capable of supporting scale.
That gap matters enormously for martech. AI can only personalise effectively when customer data is accurate, connected and governed.
Trust is another issue. Deloitte found that one in four AI users in its UAE-KSA consumer study cited privacy as a major concern. Ipsos, meanwhile, found that 70% of surveyed advertising professionals were concerned about overreliance on AI without human oversight, while 63% were concerned about bias and discrimination.
The GCC nevertheless has an important advantage: strong digital infrastructure, high consumer engagement with technology and governments that are actively investing in AI. The challenge for marketers is turning that infrastructure into measurable commercial value.
The winners in GCC martech will therefore not necessarily be the brands with the most AI tools. They will be the ones that build the strongest data foundations, integrate their martech stacks, maintain human oversight and use AI to improve actual business outcomes.
The Gulf’s marketing technology race is entering its next phase. AI is no longer simply another tool in the marketer’s toolbox. It is becoming the intelligence layer connecting the entire toolbox.
