RIYADH: OpenText, the global information management software company, is betting on the accelerating momentum of digital transformation and artificial intelligence in Saudi Arabia, with around 40 percent of organizations in the Kingdom classified as AI-ready and qualified, reflecting significant opportunities for future innovation, according to an official.

Speaking to Al-Eqtisadiah, George Schembri, vice president and managing director of OpenText Middle East and Turkiye, said this momentum was a key factor behind the company’s decision to establish its regional headquarters in Riyadh, emphasizing that Saudi Arabia has become one of OpenText’s most important strategic markets globally.

OpenText does not view achieving a specific growth rate as the primary objective of its presence in the Kingdom. Instead, as per Schembri, the company is focused on helping organizations derive greater value from their information, expand the responsible use of AI and strengthen digital resilience.

Sustainable growth, he believes, comes when organizations can modernize their operations, increase productivity, strengthen governance, and enable innovation based on trusted information.

Saudi Arabia: From technology adoption to reshaping business

The Saudi market is increasingly moving, according to Schembri, from experimenting with AI technologies toward seeking enterprise-wide applications, particularly among organizations that handle large volumes of sensitive information.

Sectors seeing high levels of demand include government, financial services, and energy, as well as healthcare and large enterprises, with these organizations turning to AI to improve decision-making, increase efficiency, and develop services, along with strengthening operational resilience.

However, this expansion is accompanied by stricter requirements around security, privacy, governance, and sovereignty.

Schembri said one of the main messages the company hears from Saudi organizations is that AI should not simply be an innovation tool, but a technology that can be controlled, governed and brought into compliance with local regulatory requirements.

This is where OpenText’s Aviator platform comes in, aiming to enable organizations to leverage AI based on trusted information while maintaining security, governance, data sovereignty and compliance controls.

Sovereign AI creates a new equation

The concept of sovereign AI is gaining increasing importance in the Saudi market as organizations seek ways to use AI to handle sensitive data while maintaining control over their information and complying with regulatory requirements.

Schembri said AI sovereignty is not limited to infrastructure or models but extends to organizations’ understanding of the information AI can access, how that information is governed, and who is authorized to access it, as well as how decisions can be explained, reviewed, and audited.

This reflects a shift in organizational priorities, from asking whether AI can perform a particular task to asking more fundamental questions about trust, control, and accountability, as well as information management.

Riyadh: A regional headquarters beyond business administration

OpenText does not view its regional headquarters in Riyadh merely as an administrative center, but as a platform for building local capabilities in technical expertise, consulting, and solution design, as well as customer support and AI-related advisory services.

Schembri said the company aims to combine its global technologies with local expertise, enabling Saudi organizations to tailor solutions to their business, regulatory and data requirements.

He also sees the potential for Riyadh to become an important regional hub for expertise, solution development and AI innovation over time, with the local team expected to grow in line with customer demand and market opportunities.

The company has not disclosed the value of its investment in establishing the regional headquarters or a specific figure for additional investments planned in Saudi Arabia. It said its ongoing investment is focused on expanding local capabilities, strengthening partnerships, and supporting customers through their digital transformation journeys.

AI agents: Value matters more than volume

In a market where global companies are competing to develop AI agents, OpenText is focusing less on announcing the number of agents it has developed and more on the outcomes they can deliver for organizations.

The company continues to expand its capabilities across information management, cybersecurity, and service management, as well as software development, legal services, finance, and business network environments as part of its Aviator strategy, which includes Aviator Studio and MyAviator.

Aviator Studio enables organizations to build AI agents, orchestrate their work and subject them to governance, while MyAviator provides a secure way to interact with enterprise information.

According to Schembri, the main challenge in Saudi Arabia is not developing agents designed for a specific geographic region but ensuring that these agents can operate within local security, privacy, governance, and sovereignty requirements.

Growing demand for information automation

The need to automate information-intensive processes is emerging as an area of interest among Saudi organizations. Schembri cited local examples, including Al-Fanar, which has used OpenText solutions to automate document and invoice processing at scale, helping improve efficiency and operational oversight.

Alinma Bank has also used OpenText Service Management to improve service delivery and incident management through increased automation, visibility, and operational control.

OpenText does not disclose specific new contracts before they are officially confirmed, but the company said demand for trusted information management remains strong across multiple sectors.

Focus on expansion, not numbers

Following the opening of its regional headquarters, OpenText has not announced a new figure for the scale of expansion it is targeting in the Kingdom during 2026. Instead, the company is focusing on expanding customer engagement, strengthening its partner ecosystem, and developing local capabilities as well as helping organizations move from AI experiments to enterprise-wide adoption.

Schembri summed up the company’s strategy as being centered on more effective information management, stronger cybersecurity, and modernized operations, as well as extracting greater value from data.

For OpenText, the Saudi opportunity is not only about the size of the market, but also the role the Kingdom could play in shaping a new model for AI adoption that combines innovation with sovereignty, governance, and trust, as the company seeks to strengthen its position as a partner to organizations navigating this stage of transformation.