The Middle East’s major retailers are fully invested in AI and its ability to boost efficiency, according to Honeywell’s Global Retailer Technology Survey.
More than three-quarters (76 per cent) of in-region retailers are already using AI, with 58 per cent planning to expand use in the near term and 18 per cent set to maintain current levels.
According to Honeywell, AI is delivering value in these areas
- Procurement (48 per cent), customer experience (46 per cent) and demand-planning (34 per cent) are viewed as the biggest beneficiaries of AI and digitisation
- Middle East respondents valued AI for procurement more than other regions (+20 per cent)
- Fewer Middle East retailers saw AI accelerating sales (26 per cent) and marketing (30 per cent) versus 34 per cent and 37 per cent globally
George Bou Mitri, Honeywell Industrial Automation’s president for the Middle East, Turkey, Africa, and Central Asia region, said: “Across the Middle East, AI has tremendous potential to enhance the omnichannel shopping journey by creating hyper-personalised experiences for customers.
“We are also seeing AI’s ability to streamline critical retail processes throughout the supply chain in the region, bringing many benefits to retail operations.”
Beyond AI
- The Middle East is leading on augmented reality (AR) adoption, with 40 per cent of surveyed retailers using AR versus 31 per cent globally
- Machine/camera vision (CV) is used by 36 per cent of Middle East retailers and optical character recognition (OCR) by 30 per cent. OCR can speed shelf-replenishment and price-check workflows by reading labels and product data quickly, while CV can help mitigate retail shrinkage
What could slow future AI rollouts
- Top anticipated challenges: AI model complexity (64 per cent), regulatory compliance (40 per cent) and workforce adaptation (40 per cent)—pointing to the need for clear associate enablement
- Customer acceptance is seen as less of a barrier in the Middle East (34 per cent) than globally (40 per cent)
Honeywell’s study covered large retailers across the US, Europe, Latin America, India and the Middle East, assessing use of AI, automation, AR, machine vision and sensors.
Middle East participants were based in Saudi Arabia and the UAE and had minimum annual revenue of $5m.
