Oman’s National Digital Economy Program focuses on digital government, business digitization, and digital society as core drivers of growth.

Here is how AI can help:

Studies from McKinsey estimate that AI can significantly increase productivity and add trillions of dollars globally by automating routine work and supporting better decisions.

For Omani companies this can mean:

• Automating repetitive tasks
• Processing invoices, contracts, or customer emails.
• Reducing manual data entry in finance, HR, and operations.
• Smarter operations in industry and logistics
• Predictive maintenance in factories (fixing machines before they break)
• Better routing for trucks and shipping, cutting fuel use and delays.
• Data-driven decisions for business owners
• AI tools that analyse sales, inventory, and customer behaviour and give simple recommendations.

These are not science fiction projects – they are exactly the kinds of use cases McKinsey and BCG highlight as high-value and realistic for GCC companies today.

Oman is already moving fast on digital government – for example, legally recognizing digital versions of ID cards and driver’s licenses, which is a big step toward fully digital services.

Regional benchmarks show that GCC governments, including Oman, are among global leaders in digital services and citizen trust in AI-enabled government tools.

AI can support Vision 2040’s governance goals by:

• 24/7 digital assistants for citizens and residents
• Chatbots on government sites that answer questions in Arabic and English:

“How do I renew my license?”
“What documents do I need for this permit?”

• Reduced waiting times at call centres and counters.
• Smarter back-office processing
• Automatic reading and classification of documents.
• AI helping clerks check applications for completeness or flag missing information.
• Analysing large amounts of data (traffic, health, employment) to see trends earlier.
• Supporting evidence-based policy making, not guesswork.

All of this is fully aligned with Vision 2040’s aim to have efficient, transparent, and digital public institutions.

Vision 2040 places strong emphasis on skills, innovation, and human capital.

Research by BCG shows that GCC employees are adopting AI tools at work faster than global peers, and that countries like Oman are classified as “AI Practitioners” – already moving, but with room to grow in skills and ecosystem.

In simple terms, this means:

AI will change jobs, not just remove them. Routine tasks may shrink, but new roles appear:

• AI-assisted teacher
• Data-driven operations manager
• Customer agent supported by AI recommendations

People will need continuous learning, not one degree for life.
Companies will need to train their staff to work alongside AI tools, not fight them.

Practical steps for Oman:

• AI-supported personalised learning platforms in schools and universities.
• Upskilling programs for civil servants and private sector employees on how to use AI tools safely and effectively.
• Partnerships between government, universities, and private companies to build an AI talent pipeline.

McKinsey and BCG both warn that many organisations jump into AI pilots but don’t see real value because they lack focus, data foundations, or the right skills.

To avoid this, Omani companies and government entities can take a few straightforward steps:

Step 1: Start from a real problem, not from the technologyAsk simple questions like:

• “Where do our customers wait the longest?”
• “Which manual process frustrates our employees the most?”
• “Where do we lose money because of delays or errors?”

Then pick one use case where AI can clearly reduce cost, speed up work, or improve quality.

Step 2: Keep AI explainable and safe

Be transparent with users when they talk to an AI system, not a human.

• Put clear rules on what data is allowed to be sent to external AI services.
• Build simple monitoring:
• Are the answers accurate?
• Are any groups unfairly affected?

Step 3: Invest in people, not only toolsTrain staff to use AI assistants (for example, how to ask good questions and how to check answers).

• Create small internal “AI champions” teams inside departments to share best practices.

Step 4: Work with partners who understand both AI and OmanGlobal platforms give powerful tools.

• But local context – language, regulation, business culture – often decides whether a project actually works.

Delivering on Vision 2040 will require cooperation between government, private sector, and specialised digital partners that live and work in Oman’s reality.

A good partner should be able to:

• Translate Vision 2040 priorities into practical AI roadmaps for a ministry, bank, factory, or online retailer.
• Design low-risk pilots (for example 8–12 weeks) that prove value quickly before scaling.
• Build solutions that respect Arabic language, Islamic values, and local regulations.
• Transfer knowledge so that the client’s own team becomes more confident with AI over time, not more dependent.

Our own team, as a Muscat-based digital and AI agency, increasingly plays this role: helping organisations choose the right use cases, design responsible solutions, and align every AI project with the broader direction of Oman Vision 2040 – not as a one-off experiment, but as part of a long-term national journey.