EA MENA urges boards to own AI strategy as adoption gap widens

EA MENA, an ADGM-registered executive search and advisory firm, has issued a public call for boards across the Middle East and North Africa to take direct ownership of AI strategy. The firm argues that organisations treating AI as a technology programme, delegated to IT departments or a chief AI officer, are structurally ill-positioned to extract commercial value from the technology and will fall behind competitors that have embedded AI into governance from the top down.

The call draws on two widely cited surveys. The 2026 IESE Survey on Boards of Directors, which gathered responses from CEOs and board members at 130 companies across 24 countries and 18 industries, found that 55% of board members do not believe AI is yet generating significant business value. Only 15% of boards discuss AI-related challenges at every meeting, while 38% rate their involvement in defining AI strategy as low, and 43% say they provide minimal input on AI implementation advice to their CEOs. A separate IBM survey of Middle East CEOs found that 89% say their organisations are actively embedding AI across multiple workflows, yet only 25% of employees use AI regularly as part of their day-to-day roles.

The governance gap

Alister Wellesley, chief executive of EA MENA, said the sequencing of accountability matters as much as the technology itself. "AI adoption has to start in the boardroom, but it cannot stay there," he said. "The board needs to establish what the organisation wants AI to achieve and where it can create competitive advantage. The CEO then needs to turn that ambition into business strategy, with the C-suite and business leaders responsible for embedding it into operations."

EA MENA's advisory position is that AI transformation is constrained by data quality, systems integration, and governance maturity rather than by the AI tooling itself. Organisations with fragmented data estates or weak reporting infrastructure will struggle to scale AI initiatives regardless of how much they spend on models or leadership appointments. The firm recommends that boards assess readiness before determining what leadership structure, including whether a dedicated AI executive role, is warranted. A phased model is proposed: fix data governance and systems first, move to analytics and intelligent automation as those foundations stabilise, and only then treat AI as a core strategic capability embedded across operating models and workforce planning.

Market and regulatory context

The broader governance debate EA MENA is entering is well-established in Western markets but is gaining urgency in the Gulf, where Vision 2030-linked digital transformation programmes have accelerated AI spend. BCG's 2026 CEOs and Boards Survey, cited in the release, found that 79% of CEOs and 80% of board members believe prospective directors should be able to demonstrate an understanding of how AI can reshape their industry, a signal that board-level AI literacy is becoming a baseline expectation rather than a differentiator.

From a regulatory perspective, the UAE has moved faster than most jurisdictions on AI governance, publishing the National AI Strategy and establishing the AI Office within the Ministry of AI. Organisations operating across the region also face the EU AI Act's extraterritorial reach if they serve European clients, and the Act's requirements around human oversight and board-level accountability for high-risk AI systems align closely with the board-first model EA MENA is advocating. For listed companies, the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority has flagged AI-related disclosure as an emerging corporate governance topic, adding further pressure on audit and risk committees to demonstrate informed oversight.

EA MENA's call is primarily a positioning statement ahead of what the firm anticipates will be growing demand for AI-ready board and C-suite placements in the region. The firm operates across more than ten sectors and says it has 31 years of performance-linked executive search experience. No specific client mandates or placement figures were disclosed in the release.