Companies across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region are ramping up Gen AI adoption across their tax, finance and legal functions, with non-adoption rates almost halving last year, according to a survey from Deloitte’s tax and legal business.
The report showed non-adoption fell to 29% in 2025 from 52% in 2024, with the survey results highlighting that Gen AI has become a mainstream strategic priority for businesses in the region. Some 38% of respondents said their priority for adopting AI was quality improvement, followed by automating repetitive compliance tasks (23%).
However, much of the use remains in pre-implementation stages (63%), with only 19% saying they have reached scaled or enterprise-wide AI implementation and 18% actively engaged in pilots. This suggests organisations are still a long way from integrating the technology deeply into their businesses. Even so, 93% of respondents believe AI will have a significant impact on their organisations.
Muhammad Bahemia, Middle East tax leader at Deloitte, said: “The pace of generative AI adoption across the GCC reflects a region that is both ambitious and pragmatic. Leaders clearly recognise the technology’s potential, but many are now confronting the harder question of how to scale it responsibly.”
More than a quarter of respondents (27%) said they were already using Gen AI for research, followed by data analysis (14%) and AI tools and platforms like ChatGPT (11%).
However, 38% of organisations said they still don’t have a clearly defined AI implementation roadmap. Just over a fifth of respondents (21%) said they were planning to buy off-the-shelf or invest in managed service, subscription-based AI solutions. Another 21% said they were considering a hybrid approach between buying third-party AI tools and developing tools in-house, while 11% said they planned to build everything from scratch in-house.
Mohamed Serokh, a partner at Deloitte Middle East, said: “What we’re seeing across the GCC is a clear shift from curiosity to action. Leaders recognise Gen AI’s potential to fundamentally reshape tax, finance and legal functions, particularly in research, analysis and quality improvement.
“However, our survey also shows that many organisations are still navigating how to move from pilots to scalable impact. Success will depend on strong governance, capability development and a disciplined approach to implementation.”
The survey was based on 649 responses from tax, finance and legal professionals in the GCC region (48% in Saudi Arabia, 26% in the UAE, 16% in Qatar and 10% in Kuwait).
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