PwC’s Hadi Kobeissi: GCC's durable advantage is speed to scale

He adds that the region’s next step is now conversion, turning investment into productivity, exportable intellectual property, and deeper local capability.

The Middle East technology sector is entering a new phase of growth amidst aggressive government-led diversification initiatives. Fuelled by a young, highly digital population, it is rapidly scaling as a global technology hub through massive capital investments alongside a surging startup ecosystem.

As digital infrastructure continues to mature and public-private collaboration strengthens, the region is positioning itself as a global technology hub, with innovation playing a central role in shaping sustainable economic growth and regional competitiveness.

At the forefront of this development is PwC Middle East Partner for Technology & Digital Consulting Hadi Kobeissi, whose 15 years of consulting experience with a focus on national digital transformation and digital economy development has allowed him to work closely with digital government authorities and key sectors across the GCC to drive progress through comprehensive and innovative strategies, policies, programmes, and plans.

He specialises in enhancing digital service design and delivery, digital governance and resilience, and operational efficiency, with the ultimate goal of positioning these nations as global digital leaders and contributing to the region’s success.

As one of the esteemed judges for the 2026 iteration of the Middle East Technology Excellence Awards, Kobeissi brings a wealth of expertise in digital transformation and emerging technologies, with a particular emphasis on the government and TMT sectors. In speaking with the award body, he uncovers the key factors that have shaped the GCC's emergence as a leading global technology and innovation hub in the past year, examining the capabilities future technology leaders will need in order to navigate rapid digital transformation.

From your perspective, what distinguishes the GCC's technology ecosystem from other rapidly growing innovation hubs around the world?

What distinguishes the GCC is the combination of ambition, agility, strong capital, modernising infrastructure, and large anchor customers. In many markets, these ingredients sit in separate systems; however, in the GCC, national transformation programmes can align them around priority outcomes.

This creates a demand-led model in which governments and leading enterprises can move a solution from pilot to deployment across AI, cloud, mobility, energy, and public services. PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey found that “more than a third of Middle East and GCC leaders report integrating AI directly into their offerings, compared with fewer than one in five globally.” One of the GCC’s distinctive strengths is its ability to move from ambition to scaled deployment at pace.

The region’s next step is not adoption alone, but conversion: turning investment into commercial value, locally developed capability and innovation with the potential to scale internationally. The GCC’s durable advantage will come from being a high-speed testing and scaling environment for technologies applied to real economic systems, whilst using commercial outcomes, trust, and talent development to determine what endures and sustains.

How does regional collaboration across GCC countries contribute to accelerating digital innovation?

Regional collaboration can create greater opportunities to test, learn and scale across markets, whilst preserving each country’s policy choices and national priorities. The highest value collaboration is interoperability rather than identical regulation: compatible approaches to digital identity, payments, cybersecurity, cloud and data governance, AI assurance, and technical standards.

The GCC Secretariat has set a direction towards a unified Gulf digital market and joint work on digital infrastructure, governance and emerging technologies. PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey shows the commercial logic: 88% of Middle East CEOs plan to invest outside their home market, and almost three quarters of that investment is expected to remain within the Middle East.

Shared standards can reduce duplication and barriers for businesses and regulators; cross-border experimentation and regulatory dialogue can support innovation and learning; and greater coordination around cyber preparedness can strengthen resilience. Collaboration can also encourage complementary strengths across markets, enabling companies to scale regionally without erasing national differentiation. The result is faster learning, a larger addressable market and stronger export propositions.

How should governments approach AI governance to encourage innovation whilst maintaining public trust?

A proportionate approach to AI governance should focus on a system’s potential impact and use case, rather than regulating AI as a single, uniform category. A common baseline should cover data protection, security, transparency, accountability and human oversight, with stronger obligations where AI materially affects healthcare, finance, employment, education, public services, or critical infrastructure.

High-impact systems may require more rigorous testing, traceability, assurance and incident-management processes, depending on their use and potential impact, whilst lower-risk innovation should benefit from sandboxes and proportionate compliance. Overall, rules should be principles-led but operationally specific and interoperable with leading international frameworks so businesses do not face unnecessary fragmentation.

Governments can also help demonstrate responsible adoption through appropriate transparency around material public-sector AI use, proportionate mechanisms for human review, and testing that reflects local linguistic and cultural contexts, including Arabic-language performance. Where appropriate, publishing evidence on outcomes can further support public confidence.

Governance should not be viewed simply as a constraint. PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey found that companies achieving both revenue growth and cost reductions from AI were furthest ahead in establishing strong AI foundations, including Responsible AI processes and integration-ready technology environments. The objective is trusted scale: sufficient protection to earn confidence and sufficient clarity for responsible innovators to move quickly.

What industries across the GCC are best positioned to capture the greatest value from AI over the next five years?

Over the next five years, the largest value pools are likely to emerge in sectors with extensive physical assets, proprietary data, repeated decisions and measurable outcomes.

Energy and utilities are a natural priority in the GCC, with opportunities in asset reliability, production optimisation, grid management and safety. The financial services sector offers clear economic use cases in fraud detection, risk, compliance, service and personalisation. Government and public services, together with healthcare, can create substantial societal value through service navigation, resource allocation and administrative or clinical support, although assurance thresholds should be higher in such cases.

Transport, logistics and aviation are well positioned because AI can optimise networks, routes, maintenance, and throughput. Manufacturing, construction, and real estate can apply computer vision, digital twins and predictive analytics to quality, procurement, schedules and asset performance. Technology, media and telecommunications will also capture enabling value through compute, cloud, connectivity, business services, and cybersecurity.

Sector potential, however, does not guarantee returns. According to PwC's 29th Global CEO Survey, only around 12% of CEOs globally reported achieving both revenue growth and cost reduction from AI to date, highlighting the gap between experimentation and enterprise value creation.

The GCC leaders who capture the most value will be the ones who redesign end-to-end workflows, strengthen data foundations and measure business outcomes, not simply accumulate pilots.

What skills do you believe technology leaders in the Middle East will need to develop over the next decade?

Technology leaders will need a broader portfolio than technical depth alone.
First is value architecture: translating AI, data and platforms into measurable commercial or public outcomes, and knowing which initiatives to prioritise or stop.

Second is trust leadership: responsible AI, cyber resilience, privacy, data governance, and third-party risk management.

Third is operating model design: combining people and AI, redesigning roles and building continuous learning rather than occasional training.

Fourth is geoeconomic and ecosystem fluency: managing technology dependencies and navigating local regulatory, data and technology requirements, whilst working across governments, regulators, universities, start-ups and global partners, and building local capability alongside international expertise.

Finally, leaders will need sound judgement in uncertain situations: the ability to question AI-generated outputs, assess their wider consequences and explain difficult trade-offs clearly to boards, regulators and the public.

Additionally, PwC’s 2026 AI Jobs Barometer found that newly added tasks to AI-exposed roles are 2.5 times more likely to rely on skills like empathy, judgement and creativity that become even more valuable as AI absorbs some routine work. The strongest technology leaders will therefore be technically credible, commercially accountable, and institutionally trusted.

As one of the judges at the Middle East Technology Excellence Awards 2026, what key qualities will you look for when evaluating the nominees?

As a judge, I will aim to distinguish technical sophistication from realised value.

I will look first at the importance of the problem and whether the solution improves an outcome that matters, such as productivity, revenue, service quality, safety, resilience, sustainability, or inclusion.

Second, I will look for evidence: a credible baseline, measurable results, user adoption, and a clear account of what the technology itself contributed.

Third, I will look for scalability and durability, where possible: the strength of the architecture and economics, the quality of integration and the operating model, and whether the result can be sustained beyond a pilot.

Fourth, I will examine trust by design: cybersecurity, privacy, responsible AI, accessibility, and appropriate human oversight.

Finally, I will value regional relevance and capability creation: does the initiative address a genuine Middle East need, strengthen local skills or innovation capability, and have the potential to scale beyond one organisation or market?

Novelty matters, but not in isolation. A simpler solution with proven adoption and durable impact should score more highly than a sophisticated demonstration without operational results. I will also value transparency about limitations and lessons learned; credibility is part of excellence.