Advancing the GCC Region with Emerging Technologies for the Next Era

The GCC region is balancing geopolitical challenges amid ongoing economic transformation. While trade disruptions are slowing overall tech spending, enterprises are prioritizing investments in resilience through cybersecurity, sovereign cloud, AI-driven supply chains, and automation. At the same time, economic diversification and sustainability goals are driving demand for AI-enabled and green digital solutions. Stronger data sovereignty regulations and government-backed AI initiatives are accelerating the adoption of advanced technologies, while cloud modernization and ERP standardization improve efficiency and agility. Alongside this, localization efforts and upskilling programs are building a future-ready workforce, supporting sustained digital growth across the region.

Both demand-side and supply-side trends are covered in our Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Region Digital Services 2026 Market Insights™ and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Region Digital Services 2026 RadarView™, respectively. These reports present a comprehensive study of digital service providers in the GCC region, including top trends, analysis, and recommendations. It takes a close look at the leaders, innovators, disruptors, and challengers in this market.

We evaluated 61 service providers across two dimensions: practice maturity and future-proofing. Of the 61 providers, we recognized 27 that brought the most value to the market during the past 12 months.

The reports recognize service providers across four categories:

• • Leaders: Accenture, Capgemini, HCLTech, TCS, Tech Mahindra, and Wipro
  • Innovators: Cognizant, DXC, e& enterprise, IBM, Infosys, ITC Infotech, LTIMindtree, Sutherland, solutions by stc, Virtusa, and YASH technologies.
  • Disruptors: Atos, G42, and Intertec Systems
  • Challengers: Coforge, GBM, and Mphasis
  • Tech pioneer: AWS, Gulf Infotech, Lucidya, and Microsoft

Figure 1 below from the full report illustrates these categories:

“The GCC has encountered unforeseen and unprecedented geopolitical disruptions, this has however, also proved the region’s tenacity and perseverance. Enterprises are increasingly prioritizing investments in cybersecurity, sovereign cloud, and AI-driven supply chain visibility as a result, an overall positive for the region,” said Saugata Sengupta, Avasant partner and UAE country lead. “While overall tech spending may moderate in the short term, these targeted investments are critical to ensuring business continuity and operational stability.”

The reports provide several findings, including the following:

• • Gulf geopolitical tensions slow trade and tech spending, but boost investment in resilience and digital risk management.
  • Non-oil GDP in the GCC is expected to grow at 3.6% annually through 2026 as the region diversifies investments in AI-powered sustainability.
  • Stricter PDPL and SDAIA mandates are driving GCC enterprises to adopt sovereign cloud, compliant AI, and hybrid multicloud strategies to ensure data sovereignty and secure innovation.
  • The UAE and Saudi Arabia have emerged as AI powerhouses and are spearheading initiatives to solidify the GCC region’s position as an AI hub.
  • GCC enterprises are accelerating cloud-native and ERP modernization to reduce tech debt, scale global business services operations, and support AI-driven digital transformation.
  • Relaxed visa policies address the digital skills gap, paving the way for blended onshore-offshore models for complex transformations.

“Government-backed AI initiatives, data sovereignty mandates, and cloud-native modernization are accelerating the region’s digital transformation,” said Eratha Poongkuntran, associate research director at Avasant. “As organizations align with sustainability goals and localization strategies, the GCC region is building an agile and future-ready digital economy.”

The RadarView also features detailed profiles of 27 service providers, along with their solutions, offerings, and experience in assisting GCC region-based enterprises in their digital transformation journeys.

This Research Byte is a brief overview of Avasant’s Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Region Digital Services 2026 Market Insights™ and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Region Digital Services 2026 RadarView™. (Click for pricing.)