As artificial intelligence adoption expands across the Gulf, governments and businesses are placing greater emphasis on building sovereign AI systems that give countries more control over their data, infrastructure and technological development.
Andrew Chen, Vice President and Head of Platform and Products at Magna AI, said the region was moving beyond the initial phase of adopting AI tools towards developing systems that can be deployed securely, governed effectively and operated at scale.
“The biggest gap we saw in our first year was between AI ambition and AI execution,” Chen said. “Most organizations understand the potential of AI. The harder challenge is deploying it securely, governing it effectively, and operating it at scale.”
Although AI adoption is widespread across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), many organisations are still struggling to move beyond pilot projects. Chen said governance and accountability should be built into AI systems from the beginning, rather than introduced after deployment.
“Clear rules around oversight, escalation, and human responsibility do not slow AI down. They are what allow it to scale safely and credibly,” he said.
Another priority is developing technology suited to regional languages and working environments. Chen said AI systems capable of communicating in Arabic were not necessarily equipped to understand the cultural, linguistic and operational requirements of governments and businesses across the region.
Magna AI is working with Arabic.AI and Intella to deploy a sovereign Arabic large language model and dialect-based voice AI on secure national infrastructure. Its platform supports Arabic and English sovereign models while providing access to other advanced and open-source systems through a shared gateway.
Founded with its global operations headquarters in Riyadh, Magna AI has developed six products covering infrastructure, applications, security and computing exchange services. The company is also investing in executive education, professional certifications, startup support and joint innovation programmes through its academy and accelerator initiatives.
Expansion beyond the Gulf
Magna AI is extending its activities into other markets, with commitments secured in Malaysia, Taiwan and Pakistan during its first year.
Its planned projects include a 20-megawatt sovereign AI data centre and a national AI compute exchange in Malaysia, a sovereign AI exchange in Taiwan, and a public-private partnership supporting AI development in Pakistan.
Chen said the Gulf was emerging as an international reference point for sovereign AI because of its investment in technology and growing focus on regulation.
He argued that countries controlling their own infrastructure, platforms, talent and intellectual property would be better positioned to retain the economic benefits of AI and strengthen technological independence.
The need for oversight is also expected to increase as AI agents take on more operational responsibilities and decision-making tasks.
Chen said organisations should treat AI agents with the same care as new employees, assigning clear responsibilities and establishing safeguards before allowing them to operate.
