WEF offers steps for MENA to forge ‘intelligent economies’

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has unveiled four strategies for the Middle East and Africa (MENA) to embrace and develop intelligent economies in a rapidly changing world.

According to the WEF report, the MENA region faces many economic challenges that can be solved by leveraging digitization. The region has to integrate artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain systems into every facet of their local economies.

A combination of these next-gen technologies is expected to improve the productivity of local enterprises in the region while addressing other economic and health challenges facing MENA countries.

To successfully incorporate the technologies, WEF surmises that the first step for MENA is to play to its strengths. The report notes that the region has the advantage of cheap electricity and an abundance of land, which could be key to establishing new data centers to power digitization.

Since the region has excellent bilateral relationships with global superpowers, the WEF argues that MENA can lean on the strengths of Europe, the U.S., and China to develop its critical industries.

The next big step for MENA countries is to embrace AI in their processes without bias while focusing on inclusivity. To achieve this, countries in the region will have to localize large language models (LLMs) to meet their cultural nuances, with the report citing offerings from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia.

For the WEF, the third step for MENA is the pursuit of high-profile public-private partnerships to shift the burden away from national governments. Several countries in the Gulf have received impressive capital injections from leading technology companies, including Microsoft and Amazon .

“The changes that are under way are too large to be handled solely by the public sphere,” read the report. “The private sector needs to be a partner in this transformation, and in doing so, create a strong competitive advantage on the new-look global stage.”

The final step on the road to creating intelligent economies is to foster integration and regional collaboration. According to WEF, MENA has only 18% of intra-regional trade, with tech innovation carried out in silos, broadening the development gap between countries in the region.

Middle East AI spending set to double

A new report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) has predicted that AI spending in the Middle East could balloon to $7.2 billion by the end of 2026. The report included Turkey and Africa, with the figures representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37% over the forecast period.

A chunk of the figures will come from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, buoyed by heavy capital projects by their governments and supplemented by a thriving private sector.

“The UAE is making significant investments in infrastructure and skills, promoting AI adoption, developing supporting guardrails, and fostering an indigenous AI ecosystem to raise its global AI competitiveness,” read the report.