Dubai: As the Bridge Summit kicks off in Abu Dhabi on Monday, bringing together world leaders to explore the future of media, entertainment and the creative economy, Arab News has released a timely report on how artificial intelligence is transforming the media industry in the Middle East and beyond.
The report, produced by the Arab News Research Unit following a high-level roundtable at the Dubai Future Forum, captures the urgency and complexity of AI implementation in the media industry in the Middle East and North Africa region.
Explore how AI is transforming newsroom operations, redefining the role of journalists, and raising important questions about trust, accuracy, and trustworthiness amid rapid technological disruption.
AI is no longer a new trend in the Middle East, but a central force reshaping economies, governance, and public communications.
With AI predicted to contribute $320 billion to regional economies by 2030, including more than $135 billion to Saudi Arabia's gross domestic product and nearly $96 billion to the UAE's gross domestic product, governments and industry are rushing to adopt AI.
But for news media in the region, AI represents something deeper than economic possibility: a direct challenge to the foundations of trustworthiness, trustworthiness, and fact-based reporting.
These questions set the stage for a roundtable discussion hosted and moderated by Arab News Deputy Editor-in-Chief Noor Nougali in collaboration with Dubai Future Foundation. There, editors, media executives, and technology experts gathered to take on an industry undergoing one of the most dramatic changes in history.
The result is a comprehensive and insightful report. As the presence of AI becomes more and more integrated into daily news editing operations, it brings both optimism and trepidation. Just as the guardrails needed to protect journalism from misinformation, bias, and opacity remain dangerously underdeveloped.
“AI is coming and changing our newsrooms,” said Mina Al-Oraibi, editor-in-chief of The National, a leading daily in the UAE, explaining how her team recently held an AI workshop across the newsroom to generate internal use cases.
“We've gotten 26 ideas and are working to make sure people don't feel like this is something that has been imposed on them,” she said. “They need to feel like they're ahead of the curve, not swept up in the tide.”
Across the region, that curve is advancing rapidly. Currently, 81% of journalists around the world use AI tools during their general work, and almost half do so every day.
However, reporters admit that they primarily rely on the tool to handle time-consuming, mundane tasks such as transcribing interviews, summarizing reports, and translating documents.
Nabeel Al-Khatib, general manager of Asharq News, explained that this change is already redefining the economics of newsrooms.
“A newsroom of 50 people can now publish as many stories as 500 people could,” he said. But even as “machines take over the production line,” he argued, “human oversight must remain to ensure accuracy, context, and editorial standards.”
For many newsrooms, the advent of generative AI (machines creating new, original content) has created valuable efficiencies, allowing journalists to spend more time on verification and reporting, tasks that cannot yet be replaced by machines.
However, several speakers emphasized that the value of AI depends entirely on how intentionally it is used.
“We believe it's humans first and humans last,” said Neira Touni, editor-in-chief of the Lebanese daily Annahar. “We always have to fact-check everything. But at the same time, we have to use all the tools.”
For Chuenyi, transformation is not an option. “I don’t think journalism will ever end,” she said. But the outlet says, “If we don't change, we can't continue because the world is changing every second.”
Access to income sources is also a concern. “The biggest danger…is when you don't have content to promote,” said Elda Choukea, CEO of Omnicom Media Group MENA.
Audiences in this region appear to be more accustomed to AI-enhanced content than those in Western markets. But even as the opportunities expand, the risks double. AI-generated misinformation is rapidly surging, with the World Economic Forum ranking it the world's top short-term threat for the second year in a row.
A BBC-led audit of four major AI systems found that almost half of AI-generated answers contained significant errors, fabricated details or inaccurate sources.
“It's already very difficult to tell the difference between[real and fake],” Choucair said. “If you really want the truth, you need to create the awareness that sometimes you have to wait.”
With 70% of global audiences saying they struggle to trust online content, speakers warned that misuse and private use of AI could deepen the crisis of trust.
“Machines should be slaves to humans,” said advertising media mogul Pierre Chouely, adding, “This is where the government or regulation should intervene.”
However, regulation in this region remains elusive. While Saudi Arabia has taken major steps, such as establishing the Saudi Data and AI Authority and Saudi Generative AI Guidelines, its efforts are far from the comprehensive framework seen in Europe.
“It is inconceivable that Arab consumers would face significant risks without a regulatory shield,” said Mazen Hayek, a media strategist and legal expert. He argued that the region needs its own protections, like the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, to ensure transparency, protect data and hold AI providers accountable.
For Hayek and others, the deeper issue concerns technological sovereignty. From search engines to large-scale language models, nearly all AI platforms currently used in the Middle East are built and managed overseas, and are often trained on datasets that do not reflect the region's linguistic, cultural, and political realities.
“We live in a region where we have no control over the platforms and technologies we utilize,” Hayek said. “Someone needs to create a platform that allows regions to create and distribute their own content.”
Julian Hawari, CEO of emerging social media platform Million, said the main issue was honesty. “It's been an issue for as long as we can think of.”
Rashid Al Marri, CEO of media regulation at Dubai Media Council, explained: “The human element needs to be able to understand (the content), understand what's going on, and be able to come out and speak and get the truth out there.”
Saudi Arabia's sovereign AI infrastructure initiatives, such as HUMAIN and the $100 billion Project Transcendence, supported by the Public Investment Fund, were cited as steps in the right direction. But roundtable participants warned that unless the region accelerates these efforts, it risks handing over the future of that information to outside algorithms and foreign companies.
The human capital gap is equally pressing. Despite its widespread adoption, most journalists using AI have received little or no training. Many rely on self-study or online tutorials, and nearly 8 in 10 work in newsrooms without formal AI policies.
This lack of structure has created an environment where AI is widely deployed but largely unmanaged.
For Avneesh Prakash, co-founder of CAMB.AI, this solution requires both precaution and empowerment. “Like any other innovation, AI needs to be regulated,” he says. “Just like a car has an accelerator and a brake, AI requires human judgment, creativity, and resilience, so it needs to include a kill switch.”
Despite the risks, the discussion ended with cautious optimism. Participants agreed that AI could help reimagine journalism in the digital age. But only if newsrooms combine innovation with rigorous editorial oversight, transparency, and a renewed commitment to verification.
Mamoon Subei, regional president of advertising agency APCO, issued a clear warning of what lies ahead. He said AI “could help advance and redefine the journalism industry, or it could hasten its demise.”
For now, media leaders in the region remain determined to pursue the first path. In short, the values that define journalism ensure that it remains unmistakably human, even as machines play an increasing role in its production.
