Artificial intelligence has moved further into enterprise IT operations in Saudi Arabia, with Saudi AI adoption increasingly focused on measurable returns, governance and execution at scale, according to new research from Riverbed.

Riverbed has announced findings from its global survey on The State of Autonomous IT Operations. The research examines how organisations are progressing from AI experimentation towards more autonomous IT operations.

The Saudi findings show strong confidence in AI governance and human oversight. More than half, or 54%, of Saudi respondents, said they are extremely confident in their organisation’s AI governance and human oversight capabilities. This compares with 42% globally.

At the same time, 93% of Saudi respondents agree that effective AI assurance, observability and governance will become a critical IT domain. However, 77% report internal hesitation about allowing AI to make operational decisions without human approval.

The findings indicate that Saudi organisations view governance as an enabler of AI adoption. Greater visibility into AI performance, combined with appropriate human oversight, could help organisations expand automation while retaining control over operational decisions.

“Riverbed’s new research shows that AI is becoming fundamental to how IT operates, as organizations look to use it to create more resilient, efficient and proactive environments,” said Jim Gargan, Chief Marketing Officer at Riverbed.

He added that the next phase of AI will involve more than automation. Enterprises will also need to understand, trust and govern AI as its role in IT operations expands.

Saudi organisations are also increasing their AI investment. Sixty-six percent increased their AI investment during the past year, while 90% said their AI initiatives had met or exceeded their original return on investment goals.

Looking ahead, 85% of Saudi organisations want to progress to human supervised or highly autonomous IT operations within the next two years.

The findings point to a shift in priorities, from deciding whether to adopt AI to determining how effectively it can be deployed and managed at scale. Continued progress will depend on translating investment into more resilient, efficient and proactive IT operations.

The employee experience is also becoming an important measure of AI’s impact. Forty-four percent of Saudi respondents said their IT operations teams are extremely effective at using AI to identify and resolve issues before employees notice a disruption. Globally, the figure was 34%.

In addition, 96% expect AI powered operational intelligence to have at least a moderate impact on frontline IT and service desk capabilities within the next two years. Meanwhile, 36% expect the service desk to shift from reactive support towards proactive prevention.

This suggests that autonomous IT will increasingly be assessed by its ability to anticipate problems, prevent disruption and maintain a consistent digital experience, rather than simply by the number of processes automated.

A unified technology foundation will also be important as organisations move towards more autonomous operations. Almost all Saudi respondents, or 95%, consider multi domain visibility at least somewhat important for successful AI driven IT operations.

However, only 22% currently have fully unified visibility across networks, applications, endpoints and cloud environments.

There are also strong expectations around technology consolidation. Ninety-four percent of respondents agree that tool consolidation can reduce operational friction. The same percentage agree that a unified platform can simplify problem identification and resolution.

Closing this gap will require organisations to consolidate fragmented tools, establish trusted and accessible data, and create unified visibility across IT environments. These capabilities can provide AI with the operational context needed to support recommendations, faster decisions and greater levels of autonomy.

“Saudi Arabia has built tremendous momentum around AI, supported by ambitious national programmes and organisations focused on translating innovation into measurable outcomes,” said Salman Ali, Senior Manager, Solution Engineering, GCC, at Riverbed.

Ali said the next stage will focus on how effectively enterprises can govern AI and apply it to everyday operations. He added that unifying data and observability capabilities can help Saudi organisations progress towards autonomous IT while maintaining human oversight, strengthening digital experiences and supporting business value from AI investments.

The findings point to a more operational phase of enterprise AI adoption in Saudi Arabia. As the Kingdom continues its digital transformation journey under Vision 2030, Saudi AI initiatives are increasingly focused on turning investment and ambition into measurable operational outcomes.

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