Saudi Arabia's AI Surge: A New Playbook for Marketers

Q1. Saudi Arabia is investing at an unprecedented scale in AI infrastructure and partnerships. How do you see this reshaping the marketing and advertising landscape over the next three to five years?

Waseem Afzal: Technology will change the speed and tools of marketing, but the fundamentals will not. Good content is still good content. Capturing attention is still what makes brands grow. What AI does is raise the stakes: it will make weak content invisible faster, and it will reward strong ideas that connect with consumers at scale.

Q2. From a venture investor's viewpoint, what opportunities does this AI first economy create for startups and early stage marketing technologies in the Kingdom?

Waseem Afzal: The opportunity in Saudi is not the infrastructure itself, but who can turn it into outcomes. Categories are still being formed and loyalties are not fixed. The market rewards those who act early and deliver outcomes, not promises. First movers will set the standards everyone else has to follow.

Q3. AI is splitting search into recommendation engines and answer engines. How should brands rethink their customer acquisition and discovery strategies in this new environment?

Waseem Afzal: It is not about choosing one over the other. Recommendation engines and answer engines are simply different points of discovery. The fundamentals remain the same: brands need to be visible in the places people go to ask questions or look for inspiration, and that visibility has to lead to action. What changes are the tactics. Content must be structured in a way that answer engines can interpret, and it must also earn relevance in feeds where recommendation drives engagement. The principle has not changed. Discovery is only valuable if it converts into outcomes.

Q4 With homegrown Arabic large language models emerging, what is the strategic importance of Arabic-native content and data for marketers targeting Saudi consumers?

Waseem Afzal: Arabic models matter, but they are not a silver bullet. Translation and cultural nuance will keep improving. What counts is behaviour: purchases, retention, frequency. The real advantage is in owning data and using it to prove outcomes. Language builds trust, but data drives growth.

Q5. What skills and organisational changes should marketing teams prioritise to stay ahead in AI driven content creation and campaign management?

Waseem Afzal: Three skills stand out.

Commercial fluency. If marketing cannot show how it drives revenue, retention or profit, AI will only make the gap worse. It speeds up execution, but without commercial clarity it produces more noise, not more value.

AI fluency. Teams need to learn how to use AI in the right way. Not as the author of work, but as an editor, a researcher and an accelerator. The skill is in knowing how to guide and refine AI outputs so that speed does not come at the cost of originality or accuracy.

Working with sales and finance. To become more commercially fluent, marketing has to sit closer to sales and finance. That means building shared KPIs and shared accountability, so impact can be measured in the same way across functions.

AI will make average execution cheaper. The gap will grow between teams that chase activity and teams that can prove outcomes.

Q6: Rapid automation brings risks of factual errors and brand missteps. How do you recommend companies balance speed with quality control and protect brand reputation?

Waseem Afzal: Speed and quality control are not opposites. Both can be achieved if the process is designed correctly. The first question to ask is whether the task should be automated at all. If it is repetitive and prone to human error, automation can improve both speed and accuracy. But automation only works if it is done with discipline. Clear governance, proper documentation and defined checkpoints are what protect brand reputation. Errors come from weak process, whether human or machine. The answer is not to slow down. It is to design the workflow so that speed, accuracy and trust move together.

Q8. As global players like ChatGPT dominate discovery while local AI ecosystems grow, how should brands allocate resources between global and Saudi specific platforms?

Waseem Afzal: The decision is not about choosing one over the other. What matters is where outcomes are proven. Global platforms bring scale and reach, but local ecosystems provide cultural precision and trust. Brands should look at where their customers are making decisions and direct resources to the platforms that convert attention into measurable growth. In Saudi Arabia, that often means using global systems to drive awareness and local platforms to build relevance and adoption. The balance will not be fixed. It will shift as Saudi platforms mature, and brands that track outcomes closely will know when to adjust.

Q9. What role do you expect Saudi regulators to play in ensuring responsible AI use in marketing, and how should brands prepare for upcoming policies?

Waseem Afzal: AI regulation is not unique to Saudi Arabia. It is being written everywhere, and most of the platforms marketers use are global. At this stage there is no clear guidance, either globally or locally, on what the final frameworks will look like. The important step for brands is not to wait. Stay close to the conversations, remain agile, and be ready to adjust as rules emerge. Keep building, keep learning, and put responsibility at the centre of your process so that when regulation arrives, you are prepared rather than disrupted.

Q10. Looking ahead, what will define marketing success in Saudi Arabia's AI powered economy, and how should investors and entrepreneurs position themselves today to capture that future?

Waseem Afzal: Saudi Arabia today is where the breakout markets of the past once stood. Singapore in the 1980s, the UAE in the early 2000s, now Saudi in the mid 2020s. The pace here is unmatched. Infrastructure, capital and consumer attention are moving together, and regulation will soon catch up. That creates a narrow window for first movers. Success will be defined by proof of outcomes: customer growth, revenue and profitability. The brands that use AI not just to create content but to show commercial impact will earn trust with consumers, investors and regulators alike. For entrepreneurs and investors, this is the moment to commit. Saudi is the market to shape, and those who move now will set the rules for everyone who follows.