#SaudiArabia #enterpriseAI - Observability and AIOps company Riverbed has published Saudi findings from its global survey The State of Autonomous IT Operations. The results show 90 percent of Saudi organisations say their AI initiatives have met or exceeded return-on-investment goals, and 66 percent increased AI investment in the past year. Some 85 percent of those surveyed want human-supervised or highly autonomous IT operations within two years. Saudi figures rest on 100 respondents, within a global sample of 1,200 across seven countries.
SO WHAT? - The Riverbed report indicates that AI is paying off, but the plumbing hasn’t caught up. The survey found that only 22 percent of Saudi organisations currently have fully unified visibility across networks, applications, endpoints and cloud, although 85 percent want autonomous operations within two years. AI makes decisions from the data it can see, so gaps in visibility may limit how far automation can safely go. Meanwhile, the fact that 77 percent are still reluctant to let AI act without human approval suggest buyers know this.
KEY POINTS:
Riverbed has shared the Saudi results of its The State of Autonomous IT Operations report. The Saudi sample consists of 100 respondents out of a global survey of 1,200 business, IT leaders and technical specialists in seven countries.
The survey found that 90% of Saudi organisations say their AI initiatives have met or exceeded their original ROI goals. Two-thirds (66%) increased AI investment during the past year, and 85% want human-supervised or highly autonomous IT operations within two years.
54% of Saudi respondents are extremely confident in their AI governance and human-oversight capabilities, compared with 42% globally. 93% agree that AI assurance, observability and governance will become a critical new IT domain to manage.
77% reported internal hesitation about letting AI make operational decisions without human approval. Riverbed reads this as governance acting as an enabler of adoption rather than a constraint.
44% of Saudi IT teams say they’re extremely effective at using AI to resolve issues before employees notice, compared with 34% globally. 36% expect the service desk to shift from reactive support towards proactive prevention.
96% expect AI-powered operational intelligence to have at least a moderate impact on frontline IT and service-desk capabilities within two years. Riverbed argues autonomous IT should be judged on employee experience rather than the volume of processes automated.
95% consider multi-domain visibility at least somewhat important for AI-driven IT operations, but only 22% have fully unified visibility across networks, applications, endpoints and cloud environments.
94% agree that tool consolidation reduces operational friction, and 94% say a unified platform simplifies problem identification and resolution. Riverbed’s research partner Coleman Parkes ran the survey in July 2026.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]
Source: Riverbed
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