Data Sovereignty and AI Agent Strategy Set to Define Saudi Enterprise Resilience in 2026

Riyadh – Asdaf News:

With AI quickly evolving from a set of powerful tools to a central component of the competitive enterprise, it is vital for enterprises in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to understand the opportunities and challenges presented by the technology if they are to fully leverage its potential, according to experts across SAP.

Dr. Fahd Nawwab, Vice President, SAP Saudi Arabia, said organizations need to focus on building for AI, understanding which models are appropriate for specific use cases, and strengthening how the technology is governed as it becomes more autonomous. “As Saudi Arabia advances its Vision 2030 agenda, enterprises are moving beyond experimentation toward more structured, enterprise-wide adoption of AI. This shift places greater emphasis on data sovereignty, infrastructure readiness, and governance frameworks that ensure AI can be scaled responsibly in line with national priorities.”

Among the key developments organizations must leverage in 2026 are specialized foundation models optimized for specific data types and domains. These models will power high-value enterprise AI use cases including the simulation of environments, the creation of synthetic training data, and digital twins.

With Saudi Arabia investing heavily in developing its logistics, manufacturing and industrial sectors, organizations in these verticals should also be well-versed in vision-language-action models, which are key to developing next-generation robots and automation.

2026 will also see further development on relational foundation models, which are trained on structured datasets and designed to reduce the complexity traditionally associated with predictive modeling. These models can directly support use cases including forecasting, anomaly detection, and optimization across ERP, finance, manufacturing, and supply chains in Saudi Arabia.

SAP experts also highlighted an increasing shift to AI-native architectures over a legacy approach of enhancing existing AI applications and processes. Native AI will help deliver AI agents capable of reasoning through complex processes across several platforms, and more intuitive, intent-driven user interactions.

Such advancements will help to deliver improved user interfaces, or generative user interface experiences, where digital assistants will complete tasks more quickly and efficiently by reducing the need to navigate between multiple applications. Use cases could include completing complex, multi-system tasks through a single, intent-based interaction.

Agentic sprawl and digital sovereignty
While the rapid development of AI means that opportunities abound, it will also bring challenges, including “agent sprawl” where organizations find themselves using large numbers of AI agents, each of which handle critical tasks and sensitive data. This challenge could mirror previous shadow IT crises, but with higher stakes given agents’ autonomous decision-making capabilities.

This makes governance essential as organizations manage how AI agents are deployed, monitored, and constrained by policy.

Similarly, the fact that AI often relies on sensitive data for its learning and operation is bringing the technology under greater scrutiny at the national level, and governments and companies will increasingly focus on regulation of the technology, including developing digital sovereignty policies. The regulatory complexity and operational considerations associated with sovereign AI will lead enterprises to increasingly demand AI and cloud solutions that are simultaneously cutting-edge, flexible, and fully sovereign, which is necessary for responsible, relevant and reliable AI, according to experts at SAP.