New research has found that the role of Chief Information Officer in the UAE is now under scrutiny as never before, with careers, credibility, and organisational standing all tied to the outcome of decisions made around artificial intelligence over the next 18 months.
The findings, published by Dataiku and conducted by Harris Poll under the title The 7 Career-Making AI Decisions for CIOs in 2026, reveal that AI is no longer solely a business priority in the region – it has become a test of accountability for the individuals at the helm of technology strategy.
Nearly all UAE CIOs surveyed – 98 per cent – said their reputation would be shaped by their success with AI. Meanwhile, 85 per cent said their role could be at risk if their organisation failed to deliver results from AI within one to two years.
85% of UAE CIOs say jobs at risk if AI fails to deliver results within two years
The pressure extends to the very top of organisations. Some 92 per cent of respondents said they expected CEO compensation to be linked directly to AI outcomes, a signal that accountability is moving down from the boardroom.
At present, 65 per cent of UAE CIOs report that AI agents are now embedded in workflows that are critical to the running of their businesses. The country also reports fewer difficulties with AI explainability than peers elsewhere in the world.
Only 22 per cent said they were frequently, or near-constantly, asked to justify AI outcomes they could not fully explain – the lowest figure recorded globally – pointing to a level of trust in AI-driven decisions within organisations.
However, the research indicates this confidence may be concealing exposure. The UAE ranked highest globally for concern that a lack of AI explainability could trigger a crisis that erodes customer trust or brand credibility, with nearly two-thirds – 63 per cent – saying this outcome was very likely or certain.
Three-quarters of UAE CIOs also said their organisation would face financial distress if the so-called “AI bubble” were to burst, underlining how dependent enterprise performance in the country has become on AI.
The research points to a further source of concern: the pace at which AI is being adopted at the workforce level is outrunning the ability of IT teams to oversee it. More than three-quarters of respondents – 78 per cent – said employees were creating AI agents and applications at a pace that governance structures could not match. Only one in five CIOs said they had oversight of all AI agents in use across their organisations.
This leaves CIOs accountable for systems that, in many cases, they do not fully control.
There are signs that organisations in the UAE are beginning to respond to this challenge. Two-thirds – 67 per cent – of CIOs said their organisations required human sign-off before AI systems could take action in workflows, and the UAE ranked first globally for having procedures around human-in-the-loop oversight that were formal and documented.
Some 65% of respondents also said they believed it was at least very likely that governments would introduce requirements around AI explainability within the current year, reinforcing the view that the next stage of AI in the UAE will be governed by the need to be able to defend decisions, not merely to make them.
“CIOs are moving from experimentation into accountability faster than most organisations expected. The pressure is real, and the timeline is tight, but there is a path to success. It favours CIOs who act decisively now, building AI systems they can explain, govern, and stand behind before accountability is imposed rather than chosen,” Florian Douetteau, Co-founder and CEO of Dataiku said in a statement.
“For CIOs in the UAE, the conversation is shifting from ‘how fast can we deploy AI?’ to ‘how confidently can we stand behind it. If 2024 was the year enterprises proved they could build with AI, and 2025 was the year they proved they could deploy it, then 2026 is the year they must prove they can govern, defend, and measure it and do so at scale, under scrutiny, and with consequences attached. CIOs who focus on accountability and transparency now will be far better positioned to meet board expectations, regulatory scrutiny, and the realities of enterprise-wide AI adoption,” Sid Bhatia, Area Vice President & General Manager – Middle East, Turkey & Africa at Dataiku added.
Despite the findings, UAE CIOs were the most confident of all regions globally that their AI strategies would remain sound over the next year. This suggests that while the stakes are now attached to outcomes, many of those leading technology strategy in the country believe they are on the right course – provided they can maintain control as adoption continues to grow.
