UAE Leads Global Adoption of AI Agents, Survey Shows
A new survey finds that UAE firms have the highest rates of AI-agent deployment among eight surveyed markets, far exceeding the global average.
Dataiku’s 2026 Global AI Confessions Report, based on responses from 685 chief information officers in the UAE, US, UK, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, reveals that UAE companies lead the world in AI-agent usage. More than six in ten UAE CIOs say their organisations run over 50 agents, and a notable 15 percent operate more than 500, far above the 9 percent global average. The survey also shows strong hiring intentions, as 22 percent of UAE CIOs plan to recruit over ten AI experts in the coming year, the highest rate among the surveyed nations.
Despite this progress, containment capabilities lag, with only five percent able to isolate a problematic agent within one to two hours, and most respondents unable to act on the same day. Kurt Muehmel of Dataiku highlighted that while many UAE firms detect misbehaving agents early, systematic inventory and governance are needed to improve resilience. Sid Bhatia added that the findings underscore the UAE’s solid foundation for scaling agentic AI while mitigating risks.
