{"id":357398,"date":"2025-08-04T14:02:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T08:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/?p=357398"},"modified":"2025-08-04T14:02:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T08:32:05","slug":"ai-adoption-and-ai-optimized-infrastructure-upgrades-reshape-it-spending-priorities-in-mena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/ai-adoption-and-ai-optimized-infrastructure-upgrades-reshape-it-spending-priorities-in-mena\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Adoption and AI-Optimized Infrastructure Upgrades Reshape IT Spending Priorities in MENA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gartner Forecasts MENA IT Spending to Reach $169 Billion in 2026<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

IT spending in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is projected to total $169 billion in 2026, an increase of 8.9% from 2025, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe MENA region is rapidly emerging as a global tech powerhouse, with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leveraging its stability, infrastructure and forward-looking policies to attract global partners and build\u00a0digital skills\u00a0that empower innovation and support resilient\u00a0AI-driven\u00a0economies,\u201d said\u00a0Mim Burt, Practice VP at Gartner.<\/strong> \u201cEven amid global economic and geopolitical uncertainty, chief information officers (CIOs) in MENA are making strategic investments in AI, intelligent automation and multi-cloud strategies, while strengthening cyber defenses and advancing talent upskilling. These efforts are not only driving innovation and economic diversification but also contributing to the region\u2019s projected IT spending growth in 2026.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Data Center Systems Remain Highest-Growth Segment in 2026 Despite Slower Momentum<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Growth in data center systems spending in MENA is expected to remain strong in 2026, though the pace will ease compared to 2025. Spending is projected to increase 37.3% in 2026, making it the highest-growing IT segment, but at a slower rate than this year as the market shifts from rapid build-out to incremental and sustained investment (see Table 1).<\/span><\/p>\n

Table 1. MENA IT Spending Forecast, 2025-2026 (Millions of U.S. Dollars)\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n <\/p>\n

2025 Spending<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n

 <\/p>\n

2025 Growth (%)<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n

 <\/p>\n

2026 Spending<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n

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2026 Growth (%)<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Data Center Systems<\/span><\/td>\n9,455<\/span><\/td>\n69.3<\/span><\/td>\n12,984<\/span><\/td>\n37.3<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Devices<\/span><\/td>\n32,793<\/span><\/td>\n6.7<\/span><\/td>\n35,234<\/span><\/td>\n7.4<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Software<\/span><\/td>\n17,949<\/span><\/td>\n11.7<\/span><\/td>\n20,452<\/span><\/td>\n13.9<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
IT Services<\/span><\/td>\n34,061<\/span><\/td>\n6.9<\/span><\/td>\n36,894<\/span><\/td>\n8.3<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Communications Services<\/span><\/td>\n60,905<\/span><\/td>\n4.4<\/span><\/td>\n63,456<\/span><\/td>\n4.2<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Overall IT<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n155,163<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n8.8<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n169,019<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n8.9<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Source: Gartner (August 2025)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cData center system spending is expected to accelerate as MENA CIOs and technology leaders invest in AI-enabled software and\u00a0AI-optimized infrastructure,\u201d said\u00a0Eyad Tachwali, VP, Advisory at Gartner. \u201cThis surge is largely fueled by pent-up demand for\u00a0generative AI\u00a0(GenAI) and advanced machine learning, which depend on robust computing power for large-scale data processing. Most of this demand is being driven by governments, hyperscalers, technology providers and organizations focused on developing and deploying AI models, rather than traditional enterprises or consumers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

AI Integration Reshapes IT Spending Priorities in MENA<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Software spending in MENA is expected to grow 13.9% to $20.4 billion in 2026, as organizations accelerate adoption of GenAI capabilities. Gartner predicts that by 2028, 75% of global software spend will be on solutions with GenAI functionality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCIOs will increasingly be offered embedded\u00a0GenAI capabilities\u00a0in enterprise applications, productivity and developer tools, more advanced large language models as well as AI-optimized servers to support AI-as-a-service,\u201d said Burt. \u201cProviders are also exploring new pricing models across software and hardware to drive revenue.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As AI becomes central to innovation, its integration into software and IT services is fundamentally reshaping spending priorities across the region, with IT services spending in MENA projected to grow 8.3% in 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith the rapid acceleration of AI infrastructure and adoption in MENA, CIOs must move beyond GenAI as a productivity tool and embed it into the heart of their business strategy,\u201d said Tachwali. \u201cThe real competitive edge will come from building strong data foundations, composable technology platforms and cultivating\u00a0AI-fluent\u00a0talent\u2014core enablers for unlocking differentiated value from AI.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Gartner\u2019s IT spending forecast methodology relies heavily on rigorous analysis of the sales by over a thousand vendors across the entire range of IT products and services. Gartner uses primary research techniques, complemented by secondary research sources, to build a comprehensive database of market size data on which to base its forecast.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gartner Forecasts MENA IT Spending to Reach $169 Billion in 2026 IT spending in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is projected to total $169 billion in 2026, an increase of 8.9% from 2025, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. \u201cThe MENA region is rapidly emerging as a global tech powerhouse, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":351145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27765,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-357398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence-news","8":"category-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}