With AI quickly evolving from a set of powerful tools to a central component of the competitive enterprise, it is vital for enterprises in the UAE to understand the opportunities and challenges presented by the technology if they are to fully leverage its potential, according to 2026 predictions from experts across SAP. 

Marwan Zeineddine, Managing Director, SAP UAE, said: “Organizations must prepare for a more deliberate phase of AI adoption, one that is built into core systems rather than layered on top of them. This requires clearer understanding of which models are suited to specific use cases, alongside stronger governance and oversight as AI becomes more autonomous. As the UAE advances its National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031, enterprises will increasingly need to align innovation with sovereign AI frameworks and infrastructure investments to ensure AI supports long-term economic resilience and operational scale.” 

With 2026 set to be a pivotal year for AI in the UAE and wider Middle East, Zeineddine shared five themes he says will define enterprise AI in the year ahead. 

1. New categories of AI foundation models unlock enterprise value 

Among the key developments organizations must leverage in 2026 are specialized foundation models optimized for specific data types and domains. These models will power high-value enterprise AI use cases including the simulation of environments, the creation of synthetic training data, and digital twins. 

With the UAE investing heavily in its logistics, manufacturing and industrial sectors, organizations in these verticals should also be well-versed in vision-language-action models, which are key to developing next-generation robots and automation. 

2026 will also see further development of relational foundation models trained on structured datasets, designed to reduce the complexity traditionally associated with predictive modeling. By learning directly from enterprise data structures, these models are expected to accelerate the development of predictive use cases compared with classical machine learning approaches. 

For organizations in the UAE, this could shorten the time required to deploy capabilities such as forecasting, anomaly detection, and optimization across autonomous ERP, finance, manufacturing, and supply chain environments For organizations in the UAE, this could shorten the time required to deploy capabilities such as forecasting, anomaly detection, and optimization across autonomous ERP, finance, manufacturing, and supply chain environments. At SAP, autonomous ERP refers to enterprise systems that use AI to anticipate issues, recommend actions, and automate routine processes within defined business and regulatory controls. 

2. Software evolves toward AI-native architecture 

In 2026, organizations will shift from enhancing existing AI applications and processes to AI-native architectures, which will fully realize the promise of modern AI. 

Enterprise applications will increasingly be built natively around AI capabilities, featuring user experiences designed for multi-model, natural language interaction, and allowing AI agents to reason through complex processes. Next-gen applications will not just have AI bolted on; they’ll be built around AI at their core. This means combining reasoning, business rules, and data to deliver insights and automation seamlessly. This will power autonomous ERP systems that proactively flag anomalies, recommend actions, and even execute workflows autonomously, all while staying aligned with company policies and regulations. It will also enable more employees to create apps such as smaller, ad hoc productivity applications in a matter of minutes without straining IT.  

At SAP specifically, a parallel shift in 2026 is expected toward AI-powered industry applications, as the company works more closely with customers to adapt business processes and develop industry-specific AI use cases based on its process expertise. In the UAE, this approach is being taken forward through the FDE program, with SAP co-innovating alongside selected strategic customers on Industry AI applications aligned to sector requirements. 

3. Agentic governance becomes mission-critical 

Agentic governance will emerge as a critical capability as organizations deploy hundreds of specialized AI agents. The “agent sprawl” challenge will mirror previous shadow IT crises, but with higher stakes given agents’ autonomous decision-making capabilities. 

As AI agents become more autonomous, organizations will need governance models that address how agents are deployed, monitored, constrained by policy, and reviewed over time. 

The organizational shift will prove profound, from viewing AI as an independent tool to managing agents as digital coworkers requiring onboarding, performance reviews, and continuous improvement. 

4. Intent-driven autonomous ERP emerges as a new user experience 

Generative AI’s ability to create text, graphs, code on the fly is improving rapidly. In parallel, AI agents enable users to simply express their intentions, allowing the agent to determine how to work toward achieving that goal. These advancements open the door to varied and entirely new ways for users to work with enterprise software. For example, AI-driven assistants could enable employees to complete complex, multi-system tasks such as customer travel planning through a single, intent-based interaction.

With time, AI will allow the user to simply express the intent: “Prepare a trip to my customer with the most leads.” From here, an AI agent will plan out the steps and required systems, interacting with the user to confirm travel details while dynamically generating analytical graphs and briefing material. 

These capabilities will prove highly valuable in the UAE where enterprises across sectors will realize immense productivity gains from human-AI collaboration. 

5. Sovereign AI requirements reshape enterprise platforms 

Digital sovereignty has become an important focus of the UAE’s national policy agenda, essential for safeguarding sensitive data locally while fostering the technological autonomy required to build a resilient, AI-driven economy independent of foreign infrastructure.

AI sparked debates about digital sovereignty among nations due to AI’s potential impact on everything from scientific discovery and national security to economic productivity and even culture. 

The high stakes, geopolitical uncertainty, and complexity of “sovereign AI” will lead enterprises to increasingly demand AI and cloud solutions that are simultaneously cutting-edge, flexible, and fully sovereign. This intensifies the shift from globalized one-size-fits-all cloud to regionally compliant, AI-powered enterprise platforms. 

Executing on the 2026 AI themes 

In 2026, AI will move from a supporting tool to a fundamental pillar of the enterprise. Zeineddine says organizations that thrive in the UAE will be those that recognize this shift and build an enterprise that is purpose-built for AI, while also investing in modern cloud applications that harmonize data across the entire business, because unified data means AI’s outcomes are more accurate and relevant.