Saudi business AI adoption climbed to 33.1 percent in 2025, up 20 percent on 2024, according to the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT). The figure sits inside GASTAT’s Establishments ICT Access and Usage Survey for 2025, the annual measure of digital activity across the Kingdom’s business sector. Saudi Arabia is set to host the 2026 UN World Data Forum in Riyadh in November 2026, while the Kingdom pushes to embed digital services into every layer of commerce under Vision 2030.
The 33.1 percent headline is one slice of a wider pattern. The same survey shows 98.1 percent of establishments with an active internet connection, 93.2 percent using e-government services, 79.1 percent banking online, and 51.3 percent running cloud services. AI adoption has crossed from the technology sector into finance, education, transport, and professional services, each above 40 percent. GASTAT designs the survey using methodology aligned with international standards set by the UN Conference on Trade and Development, the authority said.
The Connectivity Floor Is Now Universal
Almost every Saudi business is online. GASTAT’s 2025 survey found 98.1 percent of establishments had an active internet connection. Reliance on e-government services reached 93.2 percent, the authority said, and 79.1 percent of businesses used the internet for electronic banking. Two-thirds of establishments, 66.3 percent, ran a social media presence. Just over half, 52.3 percent, advertised through those platforms.
The connectivity story in Saudi Arabia is effectively over as a question of access. The remaining gaps sit in the next layer up, in what those connections carry and what they automate. GASTAT’s 2025 numbers, the most recent Establishments ICT Access and Usage Survey, are the first to make that next layer visible across the entire business sector.
GASTAT’s earlier establishment survey placed internet access at 97.7 percent in 2023. The 98.1 percent reading in 2025 puts the connectivity floor at near-saturation. The bigger story sits above it, in cloud, AI, and IoT.
AI Adoption Has Moved Beyond the Tech Sector
The 33.1 percent AI adoption rate across Saudi establishments marks a 20 percent year-on-year increase. That is the figure on the surface. Beneath it, the sectoral split runs wider than the headline suggests.
GASTAT’s breakdown of AI uptake by industry shows four of the five sectors it tracked crossed the 40 percent mark in 2025. Information and communications led at 61.1 percent. Financial and insurance activities reached 52.9 percent. Education sat at 51 percent. Transportation and storage, and professional activities, came in at 44.4 percent and 43.9 percent respectively.
- 33.1% of Saudi establishments used AI in 2025, up 20% from 2024
- 61.1% AI adoption in the information and communications sector
- 52.9% in financial and insurance activities
- 51% in education
- 44.4% in transportation and storage
The pattern, two of every five non-tech sectors at or above 40 percent, places AI alongside cloud and IoT in the operational stack. The finance, education, and transport figures suggest adoption tracks competitive pressure and government direction as much as technology supply.
The 20 percent year-on-year jump is among the largest GASTAT has recorded for any technology indicator in the survey’s recent history. Cloud email services, the fastest-growing subcategory in the cloud segment, rose 9.9 percent from 2024. Cloud office software grew 5.4 percent and cloud storage 4.1 percent. All of those run on the connectivity floor that GASTAT now measures at 98.1 percent. The Saudi Data and AI Authority publishes an AI Adoption Framework for Saudi entities, a policy reference that runs alongside the survey.
AI’s Spread Across Sectors
The sectoral data is the clearest signal in the report that AI has moved from a tech-sector specialty to a general business tool. GASTAT’s survey tracks AI adoption across the Kingdom’s main economic sectors. Information and communications, the natural home for early adoption, leads at 61.1 percent. Finance and insurance sit at 52.9 percent. Education sits at 51 percent. Transportation and storage, at 44.4 percent, and professional activities, at 43.9 percent, round out the top five. All five are now at or above 40 percent.
| Sector | AI adoption, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Information and communications | 61.1% |
| Financial and insurance activities | 52.9% |
| Education | 51% |
| Transportation and storage | 44.4% |
| Professional activities | 43.9% |
| All establishments | 33.1% |
The leading ICT sector sits at 61.1 percent; the all-establishment figure is 33.1 percent. GASTAT’s earlier establishment surveys did not break out AI adoption at the same level of sectoral detail, which makes the 2025 figures a baseline rather than a year-on-year point. The current survey makes one conclusion hard to avoid, which is that the technology is no longer confined to companies that build or sell it.
Cloud Computing Crosses the Majority Line
Cloud computing crossed a threshold in 2025: 51.3 percent of Saudi establishments now use cloud services. GASTAT breaks the cloud figure into three subcategories. Cloud-based office software, used by 56.4 percent of establishments, was the largest subcategory and grew 5.4 percent year-on-year. Cloud-based email services, used by 55.3 percent, recorded the fastest growth at 9.9 percent.
- Cloud-based office software: 56.4% of establishments, up 5.4% year-on-year
- Cloud-based email: 55.3% of establishments, up 9.9% year-on-year
- Cloud-based file storage: 42.8% of establishments, up 4.1% year-on-year
File storage on cloud platforms reached 42.8 percent of establishments, up 4.1 percent on 2024. The growth rates sit on top of an already-large base, a sign that cloud is being layered into existing operations rather than piloted at the edges.
Email led the growth, the fastest annual rate in the cloud category. GASTAT’s overall cloud figure is now 51.3 percent, ahead of where most emerging-market surveys place their national averages. The 9.9 percent jump in cloud email is the highest annual growth rate within the cloud category in 2025.
IoT Is Now in the Building
Internet of Things adoption in Saudi establishments has moved out of the office and into the building.
GASTAT found 71.4 percent of establishments use IoT for building security, including smart alarms, fire detection, surveillance cameras, and door locks. Customer-service IoT applications reached 54.6 percent of establishments. Energy management IoT reached 40 percent. Maintenance-related IoT reached 25.4 percent. Building-security IoT is the highest of the four IoT categories GASTAT tracks.
E-Commerce Closes the Digital Loop
E-commerce in Saudi Arabia is moving from a marketing question to a fulfillment question. GASTAT’s 2025 data covers both the display side and the delivery side.
About a third of Saudi establishments, 33.5 percent, use the internet to display or sell goods and services. The financial and insurance sector leads that measure at 48.5 percent. Among establishments that receive online orders, 28 percent complete their sales entirely through digital channels. The 28 percent figure is the closest the survey comes to measuring end-to-end digital commerce, the readiness layer that Saudi Arabia’s e-commerce back-end readiness gap covers in more detail. Social media sits inside that loop too, with 66.3 percent of establishments on social platforms and 52.3 percent advertising through them.
The e-commerce picture is uneven across sectors. Finance and insurance’s 48.5 percent share is well above the all-establishment average. That gap is consistent with the sector’s lead on cloud and AI adoption as well, a pattern that shows finance stacking digital tools faster than other parts of the economy. GASTAT’s survey is one of the few national datasets that places e-commerce, cloud, and AI on a single establishment-level page, which is what makes the cross-sector comparisons possible.
A UN-Aligned Lens for the Numbers
The methodology behind the survey matters for any cross-country comparison. GASTAT designs the Establishments ICT Access and Usage Survey to align with international standards set by the UN Conference on Trade and Development. That alignment is what lets the 33.1 percent AI adoption figure be compared with similar national surveys elsewhere without a methodology footnote. The full GASTAT Establishments ICT Access and Usage 2025 statistics report is published on the authority’s site. Saudi Arabia is also scheduled to host the 2026 UN World Data Forum in Riyadh in November, putting GASTAT at the center of a wider conversation about how national digital statistics are gathered.
The 2025 numbers will likely anchor that conversation. GASTAT has now published four years of the establishment survey under its current methodology, the authority said. The 20 percent year-on-year jump in AI adoption, the 51.3 percent cloud figure, and the 71.4 percent IoT security figure each set a baseline that the rest of the region will be measured against. Saudi business AI adoption is now a number on a comparable scale, not a national claim.
