Sitecore announced a significant expansion of investment in the Middle East with a new deployment announced for Saudi Arabia in 2026. Sitecore further announces a sovereign deployment in the United Arab Emirates planned for later this year. An early entrant in the region, Sitecore works with some of the most prestigious global brands and influential financial institutions, including Saudi Aramco, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Taiba Investments, Riyadh Airports Company, and Saudi Electricity Company in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as First Abu Dhabi Bank, Emirates NBD, Miral Experiences and Yas Island, DP World, and Dubai International Financial Centre in the United Arab Emirates.
As organisations across the region expand their digital presence, they face a practical challenge: how to deliver consistent, compliant, AI-ready experiences while meeting local data residency and regulatory requirements. Enterprises in the Middle East manage complex, multilingual digital ecosystems that span borders. SitecoreAI is designed to support that reality, providing a single SaaS platform that unifies content, personalisation, and governance across channels while running on Microsoft Azure.
“Brands can’t afford to be inconsistent in today’s digital environment,” said Eric Stine, Chief Executive Officer at Sitecore. “They’re judged across AI engines, search results, and social feeds long before anyone reaches their website — and that’s especially true in fast-moving markets like the Middle East. SitecoreAI is built to help marketing teams manage that reality.”
SitecoreAI comes to Saudi Arabia
Sitecore announced plans to commence delivery from the Kingdom’s Eastern Province starting in Q4 2026. The new deployment offers a clear, in-country path for running cloud and AI workloads locally, with data residency, low latency, and enterprise-grade security aligned with national requirements.
“We continue to invest in cloud and AI infrastructure across the Middle East, evolving Sitecore’s regional support alongside it. Through our co-innovation work done in partnership with our clients, and our joint Innovation Lab with Microsoft, we’re building SitecoreAI in step with how organisations are adopting AI. That helps customers modernise how they engage people without having to rethink their platform every time the technology changes,” said Danny Robinson, Chief Technology Officer, Sitecore.
Progress and momentum in the United Arab Emirates
Sitecore also announced a sovereign deployment in the United Arab Emirates, including an instance of SitecoreAI will run locally in the United Arab Emirates, with data residency and alignment to sovereign deployment requirements. Delivery is planned for later this year supporting customers that want to operate closer to their local market and regulatory environment.
Dave Tilbury, Chief Operating Officer, Sitecore, said: “The Middle East is driving innovation and transformation unlike anywhere else in the world. The demand for highly personalised, digital-first journeys is pushing the boundaries of technology to support both consumers and citizens. With such an exciting backdrop, the complexity of sovereignty of data and IP has historically been a barrier for many organisations across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, UAE and across the Gulf, to match their ambitions with the reality of what can be delivered locally. Sitecore’s commitment to Sovereign Cloud and investment in the Region removes that barrier and unlocks an exciting opportunity for our clients and prospects to move beyond their competitors in how they can serve their customers.”
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