Assessing the AI-readiness of an entire region, creating a go-to-market strategy for a technology leader to follow

Supporting the advancement of AI 

Our client is a technology leader and one of the most advanced developers of artificial-intelligence (AI) services and infrastructure globally. It is fully involved in the huge change that AI will facilitate across the global economy. To accelerate the adoption of AI in certain specific markets, it wished to open up conversations that would illustrate to its government and enterprise clients that they face a choice between being part of the technology transition or being left behind.

Researching international best practice in AI

The company invited Analysys Mason to research the state of the AI market and adoption in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and compare them with international best practice, regulation, roadmaps and strategies that governments and regulators have implemented in other markets. 

Benchmarking AI adoption can reveal opportunities to overtake peers and competitors

Analysys Mason conducted a detailed policy analysis of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and researched AI trends and adoption across nine leading markets worldwide to understand and compare AI uptake, preparedness and best practice. Focusing on the most important areas that determine readiness (notably policy and regulation, data protection, government-led AI strategies and financial support), we set benchmarks that showed the vibrancy of AI development in each country. From here, we created a comparative framework of global regulation and policy to pinpoint shortfalls and areas of improvement. The client was able to use this analysis to inform organisations and government entities if they were falling behind their peers and competitors and where they could gain ground

Igniting the desire to put AI into action

We gave the client a report containing recommendations on areas where the countries were performing well, and where they were underperforming and needed to invest. This gave the client tools to initiate conversations about what each government needed to do to nurture a dynamic environment for AI adoption. This covered effective regulatory environments, building the supporting infrastructure and improving the affordability of business connectivity and cloud services.

The client used this to ignite a desire for positive action, focusing on areas such as AI regulation and developing the infrastructure needed to help each of the two focus countries become AI-ready.