New research shows 76% of UAE businesses plan to invest in AI-powered customer engagement in 2026

SAP NEWSBYTE — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced that the SAP Emarsys solution has been renamed to SAP Engagement Cloud reflecting SAP’s strategy to make engagement a core enterprise capability across the SAP portfolio.

SAP is recognized in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Personalization Engines. SAP Engagement Cloud now brings SAP’s trusted enterprise backbone to the customer experience, enabling organizations to connect customer insight and operational execution in real time. It builds on market-leading personalization capabilities.

SAP Engagement Cloud also incorporates AI‑enabled insight to support responsible, efficient scaling of personalized engagement.

The announcement is supported by new data in the SAP UAE Engagement Index Report highlighting the growing pressure on organizations to close the customer engagement gap. While 74% of UAE businesses believe they are delivering seamless experiences, 66% of consumers report frustration with being passed between teams to resolve a single issue. At the same time, 76% of businesses plan to invest in AI-powered customer engagement in 2026, and 74% see AI as essential to retaining customers. However, 47% of consumers say organizations are still too slow to use data in ways that deliver meaningful value, underscoring the need to better connect insight with execution.

As part of this evolution, SAP also announced SAP Engagement Cloud, enterprise edition, which provides advanced administration, governance, and content and data-control capabilities for organizations operating‑ across multiple brands, regions, and teams.

“This approach helps organizations maintain consistency, compliance, and brand standards globally, which is increasingly important in an age of AI decision-making and automation, while also staying responsive to local needs,” said Joanna Milliken, Head of SAP Engagement Cloud.

To illustrate this, organizations operating dozens of brands and regional teams can manage engagement roles, permissions, and data centrally while allowing local teams to execute the relevant interactions. When inventory levels, fulfillment delays, or service disruptions occur, engagement can adapt without manual coordination across disconnected systems.

“Businesses across the region are investing in customer experience, but the data shows that investment alone is not enough,” said Marwan Zeineddine, Managing Director, SAP UAE. “Organizations require solutions that connect insight with action in real time, at scale, and without friction. As AI becomes more autonomous, with agentic capabilities enabling systems to act on data and adapt in the moment, SAP Engagement Cloud supports organizations in delivering consistent, personalized experiences while maintaining the governance and control required for enterprise operations.”

Existing capabilities of the SAP Emarsys solution remain available within SAP Engagement Cloud. Customers can adopt new capabilities incrementally, based on their priorities and readiness. SAP Engagement Cloud, enterprise edition, is available now, with additional innovations delivered through SAP’s innovation road map.

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