Page 34 - Red Hat PR REPORT - OCTOBER 2025

Press release

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59% of respondents, effective use of agentic AI cited by 57%, efficient use of AI capabilities cited
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by 58%, and educating the business to use AI reported by 47%. Almost all (98% ) of respondents
experience barriers to AI adoption, especially integration challenges with existing systems (36%),
data privacy and security concerns (32%), and lack of buy-in from stakeholders (32%).

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Additionally, 70% of respondents report they are experiencing a “shadow AI” problem - i.e.,
unauthorised use of AI tools by employees.

Confidence tempered by complexity; open source key

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Confidence in the UAE’s potential on the global AI stage is high, with 99% of responding UAE
businesses believing the nation is, or will soon become, an AI powerhouse within the next three
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years . A similar sense of optimism exists in other countries: 99% of respondents in Spain shared
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the same view, followed closely by Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands at 98% each, while 83%
of businesses in the UK expressed similar trust in their nation's AI trajectory.

In terms of limiting factors to the UAE’s rise in AI prominence, 62% of respondents cite a lack of
computing infrastructure, followed by lack of talent pipeline (52%), and lack of public funding
(45%), as the key hold-ups .
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1 Methodology: the research, conducted by Censuswide, surveyed 909 IT managers and directors (including
infrastructure and cloud infrastructure roles) and AI engineers (including software engineers in AI/ML, NLP and LLM
engineers and data scientists) from companies with 500+ employees across EMEA (in France, Germany, Italy, the
Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UAE and the UK). Of these, 100 are from the UAE. Censuswide
abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society and follows the MRS code of conduct and
ESOMAR principles. Censuswide is also a member of the British Polling Council.
2 Almost two-thirds of respondents (61%) expect to increase investment by 21-50% while under one-third expect
increases of 5-20% (29%). 7% foresee a 51–75% increase, and 3% say they do not plan to increase AI investment.
3 Strongly agree’ and ‘Somewhat agree’ responses combined
4 Inverse of those who selected “Phase 5: Driving customer value” when asked ‘What phase is your organisation at
with AI adoption, if any? Please select the option that most applies.’
5 Respondents were asked to select the phase that most applies to their organisation:
27% of UAE respondents are in phase 1 - building awareness of AI
28% of UAE respondents are in phase 2 - preparing for AI
21% of UAE respondents are in phase 3 - exploring AI use cases
20% of UAE respondents are in phase 4 - maximising AI investment
4% of UAE respondents are in phase 5 - driving customer value.
When asked about the future, 8% of respondents answered that they hope to be driving customer value in five years
time.
6 All ‘Yes’ answer options combined
7 ‘Yes, my nation is one already’ and ‘Not yet, but my nation has the potential to become one in the next three years’
responses combined
8 71% of respondents believe the UAE is already a leading global powerhouse of AI, 28% believe it could become one
in three years
9 Spain stood on par with the UAE, with 99% of respondents saying their nation is, or has the potential to become, a
global AI powerhouse. This was followed by Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands, each at 98%, and the UK at
83%.
1O Out of subset of respondents who do not think/ are not sure if their nation is, or can become, a leading global
powerhouse of AI in the next three years
11 ‘Very important’ and ‘Somewhat important’ responses combined
12 Inverse of those who selected “There are no main barriers” when asked ‘What, if anything, are the most significant
barriers your organisation faces when adopting AI technologies? (Select up to 3)’