Saudi Arabia Tech Report: Businesses Forge Ahead with

The latest Saudi Arabia Tech Report by KPMG shows that Saudi Arabian companies are keeping up their momentum as they work to align their technological efforts with their long-term goals. The current edition emphasizes the significance of digital transformation in addressing the challenges of the current market.^[1]  

The study is based on a survey of 2100 executives from 16 countries, including 70 Saudi respondents.
People from nine businesses in Saudi Arabia filled out the survey: retail, energy, higher education, financial services, healthcare, industrial production, human and social services, and government and public sector.

The survey respondents are mostly senior leaders: 73% are C-suite members, 14% are VPs or heads of teams, and the last 9% are directors.

35% of the Saudi Arabian groups that were looked at made between $100 million and $9.99 billion a year.

82% of respondents are still confident in their current technology stack's ability to fuel organizational growth, even though 79% of respondents say it's hard to get more done with smaller budgets.

In Saudi Arabia, survey respondents represent nine industries: customer retail, energy, higher education, financial services, healthcare, industrial production, human and social services, and the government and public sector.

Senior leadership makes up a sizable chunk of this sample, with 73% of C-suite members, 14% VPs or heads of departments, and the remaining 9% of directors.

Thirty-five percent of the Saudi Arabian organizations studied had annual revenues between $100 million and $9.99 billion.

Despite facing the daunting task of accomplishing more with tighter budgets—79% of respondents attest to this challenge—82% remain confident in their current technology stack's ability to fuel organizational growth.

Investments in emerging technologies are yielding substantial returns, with advancements such as low-code and no-code platforms, cybersecurity measures, and artificial intelligence driving profitability gains of over 10% for many businesses. Additionally, digital transformation efforts are enhancing employee productivity, customer engagement, and innovation across sectors.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia stands out for its accelerated progress in certain areas, notably data and analytics, where an impressive 83% of respondents report significant gains. However, while enthusiasm for AI is high, only 21% have progressed proactively in implementing AI strategies, highlighting the need for agile execution and ethical considerations in AI deployment.

As organizations grapple with cybersecurity and privacy concerns, alongside the migration to cloud infrastructures, the focus on enhancing security has become paramount, particularly in XaaS projects. Furthermore, the report underscores the intertwining of environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities with technology innovation agendas, with nearly 40% of Saudi Arabian respondents prioritizing ESG advancements as a primary innovation goal.

In terms of the future, tech leaders stress how important AI and machine learning are for meeting short-term goals. 5G technologies and edge computing are also becoming important. Even though AI is improving quickly, there are still worries about its ethical use and the openness of decision-making, which means that strong policies and procedures are needed.

Even though they have limited resources and the technology landscape is constantly changing, Saudi Arabian businesses are still committed to going digital. They use new technologies to drive growth and innovation.