From Dubai Chocolate to AI: The Middle East in Transition

A sweet retail success in Dubai reflects a deeper transformation across the Middle East — from exporting goods to exporting knowledge, from tradition to advanced technology.

In July 2025, Dubai Duty Free (DDF) reported record half-year sales of AED 4.1bn (USD 1.12bn), up 6.4 per cent on the previous year. Confectionery was a standout, generating AED 412.5m (USD 112.3m), a 62.7 per cent increase year-on-year.

The star product was Dubai Chocolate. In six months, 2.5 million bars were sold, worth AED 165m (USD 45m) — accounting for 40 per cent of confectionery sales and around 4 per cent of total DDF revenue.

Its success is more than a retail achievement. Dubai Chocolate is emblematic of a wider regional shift: from cultural exports to innovation-led economies, and from consumer goods to the export of data, knowledge, and technology.

A Generational Shift

Across co-working spaces in Amman, AI bootcamps in Riyadh, coding academies in Cairo, and design studios in Beirut, a new generation is shaping the future. Raised on mobile-first platforms and global digital networks, they are not following the world’s lead — they are building with originality.

Their work is increasingly global in scope. Students in Alexandria and Ramallah are co-authoring AI research; regional artists are selling generative works on international Web3 platforms; engineers are developing Arabic-first large language models; and founders are creating tools that cross linguistic, currency, and infrastructure barriers.

Where the Middle East once exported goods and talent, it is now exporting intellectual property, platforms, and leadership.

The Human Advantage in AI

The region’s growing role in AI reflects more than technical adoption. Boston Consulting Group estimates that the value composition of AI is 10 per cent technology, 20 per cent data and process, and 70 per cent people and culture. In the Arab world, cultural heritage is an asset — shaping ethical frameworks, linguistic models, and trust systems embedded into innovation.

The shift is not only in coding, but in infusing identity into the architecture of digital systems.

New Leadership Models

The Chief AI Officer (CAIO) role is expanding rapidly worldwide, with McKinsey predicting adoption by 38 per cent of global enterprises within a few years. In the Middle East, governments are appointing CAIOs to guide smart city strategies; enterprises are embedding AI across customer engagement, supply chains, and decision-making; and startups are hiring AI leads to manage models and proprietary data.

Universities, incubators, and sovereign tech hubs are training leaders who combine strategy with ethics and governance — a new leadership style designed for the complexity of the AI era.

An Emerging Intelligence Economy

The Arab world’s intelligence economy is distributed, interoperable, and borderless. Models trained in Amman can support chatbots in Riyadh; agricultural AI built in Cairo can be deployed in Basra; and sovereign compute tokens issued in Abu Dhabi can give developers in Beirut and Tunis verified infrastructure access.

What binds this ecosystem is a shared narrative: youth creating for the world, collaboration across cities, and a cultural legacy translated into digital design. The result is not just a cluster of “tech hubs” but a connected network of intelligence with its own values and export potential.

Beyond Goods to Knowledge

Dubai Chocolate’s success illustrates the underlying principle: value built on local identity, competitive in global markets. The same approach applies to technology — regional innovation grounded in heritage yet designed for global relevance.

The next phase will not be defined solely by physical exports, but by the scale and trust of the systems the region creates — platforms, protocols, and frameworks that serve both local and global needs.

A Generation Writing the Future

From Cairo to Dubai, from Amman to Beirut, a generation is emerging that will not simply consume AI but shape it. They will write the prompts, design the protocols, and govern the platforms of tomorrow’s digital society. Their measure of success will not only be revenue or exports, but their ability to scale ideas, earn trust, and set standards for how technology serves society.

About the Author

Bashar held senior leadership positions at global technology and consulting firms, Accenture and IBM, in addition to several board memberships at corporates, universities and future foresight institutions before founding AI360 Innovations Ltd, an advisory firm focusing on the digital economy at the Dubai AI Campus at DIFC and becoming Managing Partner at Boyden, a leading Leadership Consulting and Executive Search firm.