Middle East Boards Lead the World on AI Governance, New Board Intelligence Research Finds

Boards across the Middle East are emerging as the most forward-looking and technology-focused globally on questions of artificial intelligence governance, according to new research from Board Intelligence, EMEA's largest board technology and advisory firm. The latest edition of the firm's Board Value Index surveyed more than 400 non-executive directors, CEOs and CFOs across the UK, US, Nordics and Middle East, and found Middle East boards leading their international peers on several measures of AI governance maturity.

More than two in five Middle East directors, 42 percent, describe their board as an essential tool for value creation, the highest proportion of any region surveyed. Fifty-eight percent report actively reviewing which decisions should remain human-led versus AI-led as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in business operations, a figure that places Middle East boards ahead of comparable markets on the specific governance question that matters most as AI moves from advisory tool to decision-making layer. Eighty-six percent say their board enables innovation, and 62 percent dedicate the majority of board meeting time to future-focused discussions, second only to the US and ahead of both the UK and the Nordics.

The research also finds Middle East boards more likely than any other region to treat emerging technologies as strategic opportunities rather than purely risk management issues. Around 30 percent of directors say their board discusses quantum computing primarily as a strategic opportunity, compared with 24 percent globally. That framing, opportunity first rather than risk first, is consistent with the broader pattern AWM has tracked across the region in 2026: governments and boards alike treating AI governance as core infrastructure for competitive advantage rather than a compliance afterthought. The UAE's approval of its federal Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority and the wave of GCC sovereign AI infrastructure investment, including Kuwait Investment Authority's commitment to Helix Digital Infrastructure, reflect the same opportunity-led posture at the national level that this research finds at board level.

The findings are not without caution flags. Skills and subject matter expertise were identified as the region's biggest barrier to better board decision-making, cited by 34 percent of respondents. Eighty percent of directors said skills gaps had contributed to at least one delayed, rushed, or poor board decision in the past six months. Pippa Begg, CEO and co-founder of Board Intelligence, said boards across the region are increasingly being asked to oversee decisions involving technology, innovation, risk and long-term growth simultaneously, and that future competitiveness will depend not only on how organisations adopt new technologies but on how governance itself evolves. Raja Al Mazrouei, advisory board member of Board Intelligence and CEO of Etihad Credit Insurance, made a similar point, noting that governance quality increasingly depends on information quality, access to the right expertise, and the ability to make informed decisions in a rapidly changing environment.

The gap between governance ambition and governance capability identified in this research connects directly to a theme AWM has tracked closely this week. The IBM CEO study published earlier in June found that 67 percent of Middle East organisations now have a Chief AI Officer and 48 percent of operational decisions are expected to be made by AI without human intervention by 2030. Board Intelligence's finding that 58 percent of boards are already reviewing the human-led versus AI-led decision boundary is the governance-level counterpart to that executive-level data. Together, the two studies suggest Middle East organisations are moving in the right direction structurally, appointing accountable leaders and reviewing decision boundaries, while still working to close the expertise gap that determines whether that structure functions well in practice.

Only 22 percent of Middle East directors say their board strongly enables innovation, a softer figure that sits alongside the 86 percent who say their board enables innovation in some form, suggesting room to move from broad support to active acceleration. Sixty-four percent of boards say they would still need to develop internal talent or conduct an external search before being able to appoint a CEO successor immediately, a separate but related signal of the leadership bench strength gap that AI governance demands are now testing.