Leveraging SAP BTP and AI to Build Intelligent, Data-Driven Businesses in MENA

Across the Middle East and North Africa, the conversation has shifted. Digital transformation is no longer just about modernizing IT estates or migrating workloads to the cloud. It’s about how quickly organizations can transform data into informed decisions and decisions into tangible, measurable outcomes.

That urgency is reflected in the numbers. IT spending in the MENA region is projected to reach over $230 billion by 2025, growing at a rate of more than 7% year over year. At the same time, AI spending across the Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa is expected to grow at a 34% CAGR, reaching nearly $15 billion by 2028. Governments, enterprises, and sovereign-backed organizations are investing at scale, driven by national AI strategies, economic diversification programs, and rising competitive pressure.

Yet, despite this momentum, many organizations struggle to move beyond pilots. AI initiatives stall. Dashboards multiply. Data teams stay busy, but business impact remains uneven.

The gap is not ambition or funding. The gap is in execution at enterprise scale.

This is where SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) plays a decisive role.

Why AI success in MENA looks different

The MENA region presents a unique combination of opportunities and constraints.

On one hand, the upside is massive. AI alone is expected to contribute around $320 billion to Middle Eastern economies by 2030, with the Gulf capturing a disproportionate share. Public cloud adoption could unlock up to $180 billion in economic value over the same period.

On the other hand, enterprises operate in an environment defined by:

• complex group structures spanning multiple countries
• hybrid landscapes with SAP and non-SAP systems
• rising regulatory expectations around data privacy and sovereignty
• high executive pressure to show tangible ROI, fast

Saudi Arabia’s Personal Data Protection Law is now fully enforceable. The UAE’s federal data protection law governs the processing and transfer of personal data. Similar frameworks are emerging across the region. For AI programs, this means governance is no longer optional or something to “add later.” It must be designed in from day one.

In this context, AI success is less about building the most advanced model and more about operating AI responsibly, repeatably, and closely aligned with the business.

SAP BTP as the foundation for intelligent enterprises

SAP BTP is not just a technical layer. Strategically, it acts as the connective tissue between systems, data, and decision-making.

At its core, BTP enables three things MENA enterprises need to scale AI:

First, integration without fragility.

Most organizations in the region run SAP at the core, surrounded by industry platforms, legacy systems, hyperscaler services, and other business solutions. AI depends on signals from all of them. SAP BTP’s integration capabilities enable enterprises to connect SAP and non-SAP systems through managed APIs and event-driven patterns, eliminating the need for brittle point-to-point custom code. This is critical when businesses are expanding, acquiring, or operating across borders.

Second, trusted data with business meaning.

AI fails when data definitions are inconsistent. Revenue, margin, customer, or inventory mean different things to different teams. SAP’s data layer, particularly through SAP Datasphere, focuses on preserving business semantics rather than flattening everything into raw tables. This allows finance, supply chain, sales, and operations to work from the same definitions while keeping data distributed where it belongs. Trust in AI outputs starts here.

Third, AI that runs like a product, not an experiment.

Through capabilities such as SAP AI Core, AI Launchpad, and the Generative AI Hub, enterprises can deploy, monitor, and govern AI use cases with the same discipline they apply to business applications. Models can be versioned. Access can be controlled. Outputs can be audited. This matters deeply in regulated industries that dominate the MENA economy, including banking, energy, telecommunications, and the public sector.

From AI ambition to operational impact

Where SAP BTP and AI consistently deliver value:

• Finance: AI classifies spend, detects anomalies, and automates controls across large, decentralized procurement environments—resulting in faster financial closes, reduced leakage, and fewer exceptions.
• Retail and consumer businesses: AI-driven demand forecasting and replenishment help manage volatility caused by promotions, tourism flows, and inflation—improving availability and reducing markdowns.
• Energy, utilities, and industrial sectors: Predictive maintenance and intelligent field service reduce unplanned downtime and improve asset utilization, directly protecting revenue and public trust.
• Government and giga-projects: AI-supported analytics consolidate reporting, highlight delivery risks, and accelerate decision-making across complex, multi-entity programs.

In each case, AI is embedded into workflows people already use. It augments human decision-making instead of operating in isolated tools.

Governance as a competitive advantage

A persistent myth is that governance slows innovation. In MENA, the opposite is increasingly true.

Precise data classification, access controls, audit trails, and human-in-the-loop rules allow organizations to move faster with confidence. They reduce rework, prevent regulatory surprises, and build executive trust in AI-driven decisions.

Leading organizations are now establishing centralized AI control planes that define:

• which data can be used for which use cases
• how models are approved, monitored, and retired
• where human judgment is mandatory
• how compliance is demonstrated, not just claimed

SAP BTP enables this governance to be applied once and reused across the enterprise, rather than reinvented for each initiative.

A practical path forward for leaders

For executives, the question is not whether to invest in AI; the question is how to invest in AI. That decision has already been made. The real question is how to sequence investments to avoid fragmentation.

A pragmatic approach looks like this:

• Start with one high-impact, measurable process and deliver value in weeks, not years.
• Then standardize integration, data definitions, and AI operations so success can be repeated.
• Finally, scale across business units and countries, adapting for language, regulation, and local operating models.

This is how AI evolves from isolated wins into a sustainable enterprise capability.

The leadership lens that matters

In MENA’s next phase of growth, winners will not be defined by who experiments with AI first, but by who industrializes intelligence.

That means treating data as a shared business asset, embedding AI where decisions are made, governing responsibly without sacrificing speed, and measuring success in outcomes, not algorithms.

SAP BTP provides the foundation to do this at scale. Combined with a clear leadership vision and disciplined execution, it enables organizations across the region to turn AI investment into a lasting competitive advantage.

The opportunity is already here.

The differentiator will be how well you build on it.

The YASH Advantage

YASH helps enterprises turn AI and data ambition into measurable business outcomes. As a trusted SAP Partner with deep expertise in SAP BTP, data, analytics, and AI, YASH collaborates with organizations worldwide to design, build, and scale intelligent, secure, and compliant digital solutions.

By combining industry insight, platform mastery, and responsible AI practices, YASH embeds intelligence into core business processes—enabling leaders to make faster decisions, improve operational performance, and drive sustainable growth with confidence.

Talk to YASH experts today to explore how SAP BTP and AI can help your organization become truly data-driven, responsibly, securely, and at scale!

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