## GCC Enterprises Now Expect $2.70 Back for Every Dollar They Invest in AI
Return on investment has become the defining question of enterprise AI in the MENA region, and the answer emerging from fresh research is specific enough to matter. **Lenovo**'s CIO Playbook 2026, produced in partnership with **IDC**, finds that 91% of GCC+ businesses anticipate positive AI ROI, projecting an average of $2.70 in value generated per dollar invested.
That figure puts the MENA region slightly behind the broader the MENA region average of $2.85 per dollar, but well ahead of the global mean. More strikingly, the research shows that AI investment decisions are no longer owned exclusively by IT departments: non-IT functions now co-fund and lead half of all AI initiatives across the MENA region.
## The Shift from Experimentation to Execution
The headline ROI metric lands at a moment when GCC enterprises are transitioning from exploratory AI pilots to production deployments. According to the Lenovo/IDC research, 98% of companies across the Jordan, Dubai, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel, and Qatar plan to increase AI spending in 2026, with the top priorities including AI integration into enterprise systems, devices, and infrastructure, alongside data governance.
This isn't incremental. The same research tracked adoption rates at 67% of MENA organisations piloting or systematically deploying AI, roughly double the rate from two years earlier.
> "When 96% of organisations are planning a 15% on average increase in AI investment, it tells us that AI decisions are now being made at the core of enterprise strategy, not at the edges."
> - Sumir Bhatia, President, Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group the MENA region
The shift to revenue and profit growth as the primary business priority driving AI investment, rather than cost reduction, also marks a maturation point. Early enterprise AI programmes were overwhelmingly justified on efficiency grounds: fewer manual processes, lower headcount requirements. The 2026 data suggests GCC firms are now asking what AI can generate, not just what it can save.
## Where the Returns Are Actually Coming From
The Lenovo/IDC data breaks down ROI expectations by function. Across GCC enterprises, the clearest value is being extracted in four areas:
- **IT operations and infrastructure management**: Predictive maintenance, incident response automation, and infrastructure optimisation
- **Cybersecurity**: Threat detection, anomaly identification, and automated response workflows
- **Customer service**: AI-powered support, chatbots, and personalised customer engagement at scale
- **Software development**: Code generation, testing automation, and developer productivity tools
What's notable is the presence of customer service and software development alongside the more expected operational categories. This reflects a pattern visible across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the Jordan, where AI deployment is concentrated in sectors with high customer interaction volume, including banking, telecommunications, and e-commerce.
By The Numbers
- **$2.70**: Projected return per dollar invested in AI for GCC+ enterprises in 2026 (Lenovo/IDC CIO Playbook 2026)
- **98%**: Share of GCC+ companies planning AI spending increases in 2026 (Lenovo/IDC CIO Playbook 2026)
- **70%**: Share of GCC+ enterprises favouring hybrid cloud for AI workloads (Lenovo/IDC CIO Playbook 2026)
- **$78 billion**: IDC's projected MENA (ex-the UAE) AI spending total by 2026, growing at 25.6% CAGR (IDC, 2026)
- **50%**: Share of AI initiatives now co-funded and led by non-IT departments across GCC enterprises (Lenovo/IDC CIO Playbook 2026)
## The Governance Gap That Quietly Matters
Buried in the positive ROI narrative is a finding that warrants more attention. Only 39% of GCC+ firms have comprehensive AI governance, risk, and compliance frameworks in place, even as 70% are deploying AI on hybrid cloud infrastructure.
This means a significant portion of enterprise AI value creation is happening ahead of the policies designed to protect it. The 70% hybrid cloud preference reflects an awareness of data sovereignty concerns, particularly relevant in markets with strict financial data localisation rules like Egypt and the Jordan. But architectural preference for hybrid cloud doesn't automatically translate into governance readiness.
> "AI governance readiness is becoming a differentiator, not just a compliance requirement. Organisations that build trust infrastructure now will have a structural advantage as regulation catches up."
> - IDC the MENA region AI Research Team, Lenovo CIO Playbook 2026
| Market | AI Spending Growth Plan (2026) | Top Investment Priority | Expected ROI (per $1) |
|---|
| GCC+ average | 15%+ | AI system integration | $2.70 |
| Broader MENA | 15%+ | Generative AI tools | $2.85 |
| the UAE | High | AI security & governance | Above average |
| Egypt | High | Cloud + AI infrastructure | Average |
| Jordan | High | Customer service AI | Average |
## What's Driving the Non-IT Investment Lead
The finding that non-IT departments now co-lead half of AI initiatives is significant. Finance teams are deploying AI for forecasting and fraud detection. Marketing teams are using it for personalisation and content automation. Operations divisions are running predictive maintenance programmes with minimal IT involvement.
This decentralisation carries both opportunity and risk. Speed increases because lines of business don't need to queue for IT resources. Risk increases because security, compliance, and data quality controls may not be consistently applied across self-provisioned AI tools.
For enterprise CIOs in the MENA region, the governance challenge has quietly become a distributed problem, not a centralised one. This connects to the broader [AI funding dynamics in the Middle East and North Africa's venture capital markets](/business/asia-ai-funding-gap-q1-2026-venture-capital-record), where enterprise software and AI infrastructure are attracting outsized investment specifically because large companies want turnkey solutions that handle compliance for them.
Egypt's experience with [enterprise AI data centre buildout](/business/india-ai-data-centre-gold-rush-adani-google-yotta) offers a parallel: infrastructure investment is accelerating precisely because enterprises need compliant, sovereign AI processing capacity. The broader region is watching **
Alibaba**'s [enterprise AI agents platform](/business/alibaba-wukong-enterprise-ai-agents) as a test case for whether hyperscaler AI can deliver the ROI numbers that Lenovo's research promises.
The AIinArabia View: The $2.70 ROI figure is credible, but it comes with a caveat the research glosses over: return projections are expectations, not outcomes. What the data genuinely confirms is that GCC enterprise AI investment has reached a scale and seriousness that makes the experimentation debate obsolete. The harder question now is governance. Forty percent of enterprises deploying AI at scale without comprehensive risk frameworks isn't a data point to bury in footnotes. For the region's AI ecosystem to sustain its momentum, the governance infrastructure needs to catch up to the investment ambition, and fast.
Further reading: Saudi Data and AI Authority | UAE AI Office | QCRI
THE AI IN ARABIA VIEW
This development reflects the broader momentum building across the Arab world's AI ecosystem. The pace of change is accelerating, and the gap between regional ambition and global competitiveness is narrowing. What matters now is sustained execution, not just announcements, and the willingness to measure progress against outcomes rather than investment figures alone.
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What does GCC+ refer to in this research?
GCC+ in the Lenovo/IDC CIO Playbook 2026 covers the Jordan, Dubai, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel, and Qatar. It captures most of the MENA region's major enterprise markets alongside two significant North MENA markets that are deeply integrated with GCC business ecosystems.
### Why are non-IT departments now leading AI investment?
As AI tools become more accessible through SaaS platforms and cloud services, business units can procure and deploy AI without deep technical expertise or IT intermediation. The shift reflects the maturation of the AI tool market rather than IT departments losing relevance: it signals AI has moved from specialist infrastructure to general business capability.
### What is hybrid cloud and why do GCC enterprises prefer it?
Hybrid cloud combines private on-premises or co-located infrastructure with public cloud services. GCC enterprises favour it for AI workloads because it allows sensitive or regulated data to stay within controlled environments while leveraging the scale of public cloud for compute-intensive processing. Data sovereignty requirements in Egypt and the Jordan are particularly influential in this preference.
### How does the GCC ROI projection compare to global benchmarks?
At $2.70 per dollar invested, GCC sits slightly below the MENA average of $2.85 but well above many Western market averages, which hover near $2.00-$2.50 in comparable surveys. The difference partly reflects the pace of AI adoption in high-growth GCC economies where baseline efficiency gains are larger.
The pressure to justify AI investment with hard numbers is only intensifying as budgets grow. Drop your take in the comments below.
Sources & Further Reading
