Dubai — Honeywell (Nasdaq: HON) has released its Global Retailer Technology Survey, revealing that the Middle East’s largest retailers are embracing artificial intelligence (AI) at one of the fastest rates worldwide. According to the report, 76% of retailers in the region are already using AI, with 58% planning to expand its application in the near future.
The findings highlight that regional retailers see procurement (48%), customer experience (46%), and demand planning (34%) as the top areas to benefit from AI and digitalization. Procurement in particular ranked 20% higher than the global average, reflecting the sector’s drive to improve supply chain efficiency.
By contrast, fewer Middle East retailers viewed AI as a major driver for sales and marketing compared to the global average (26% vs. 34% and 30% vs. 37%, respectively).
AI and Beyond: Tech Adoption Rising
George Bou Mitri, President of Honeywell Industrial Automation for the Middle East, Turkey, Africa, and Central Asia, said:
“Across the Middle East, AI has tremendous potential to enhance the omnichannel shopping journey by creating hyper-personalized experiences for customers. We are also seeing AI’s ability to streamline critical retail processes throughout the supply chain, bringing many benefits to retail operations.”
The survey also highlighted that Middle East retailers are ahead of the global average in adopting other advanced technologies:
- Augmented reality (AR): 40% adoption (vs. 31% globally)
- Machine and camera vision (CV): 36% adoption
- Optical character recognition (OCR): 30% adoption
These tools are helping retailers visualize products, manage shelf inventory, and reduce shrinkage, while enabling smoother customer interactions.
Barriers and Challenges
Despite strong adoption, Middle East retailers cited AI complexity (64%), regulatory compliance (40%), and workforce adaptation (40%) as the main challenges for further implementation. Interestingly, customer acceptance is viewed as less of an obstacle in the region (34%) compared to the global average (40%).
About the Survey
The Global Honeywell Retailer Technology Survey was conducted in May 2025 by Wakefield Research. It polled 450 executives at large retailers in the U.S., Europe, Latin America, India, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, focusing on the use of AI, automation, AR, machine vision, and sensors. Middle East participants included major retailers from Saudi Arabia and the UAE with minimum annual revenues of $5 million.
