After billions in infrastructure: four tests that measure the real return on AI investments in the Gulf

As the fifth edition of the LEAP conference in Riyadh is set to launch at the end of this month, the total value of announced tech infrastructure investments in Saudi Arabia since the conference began in 2022 has exceeded $42.4 billion, after the previous edition alone recorded AI investment announcements worth $14.9 billion on its first day and attracted more than 200,000 visitors. This scale of capital inflow has settled the region’s ability to attract massive investments, but it now shifts the discussion to what these computing capabilities actually produce on the ground in terms of deployed software, local products, and talent able to sustain them.

The current phase places tech plans before four main pillars.First: Infrastructure and Its OperationWith data-center projects, cloud capacity expanding, and initiatives such as Heomin, launched in 2025 to operate across the various layers of AI technologies in a year that Saudi Arabia officially dedicated to AI, the challenge remains to identify the entities that build their products on that capacity and integrate them within companies and government agencies to deliver continuous solutions after the initial wave of announcements subsides.

The second pillar is AI agents, where the focus shifts from pilot offerings to operational readiness, integration costs, and actual ownership. In this context, advanced regulatory and implementation steps have emerged in the United Arab Emirates, including the adoption of the national AI system as an advisory member of the Cabinet and the Ministerial Development Council since January, and the establishment of the AI and Data Authority in June to assume tasks that include unifying digital government systems through AI agents, reflecting the transformation of agents into governance tools and daily operational mechanisms within the public sector.

The third pillar focuses on building Arab-origin technologies rather than merely translated English interfaces, especially as models evolve and a market of over 400 million Arabic speakers seeks tools that deeply understand the local context. The fourth pillar relates to the race for technical talent; while Saudi Arabia’s National Data and AI Strategy aims to qualify more than 20,000 specialists by 2030, Sdaia has trained 14,495 specialists and experts, the Samay initiative has trained over one million citizens and expanded its second phase to 11 government ministries, and the UAE’s National Programming Program offers 100,000 golden residencies. IDC estimates that the shortage of technical skills will affect more than 90 percent of organizations worldwide by 2026, causing losses of $5.5 trillion, and AI skills top the demand list.

This landscape forces professionals, entrepreneurs, and digital-transformation teams in the Gulf and the region to reorder their execution priorities, as adoption is no longer limited to receiving theoretical training or importing software, but to measuring how many developers launch truly usable applications. Real transformation begins when banking innovation programs, university projects, and government agencies treat prototype development as a direct production line for talent, turning data-center investments into operational solutions run by local minds and applications.