Artificial Intelligence as Strategic Enabler for Transformation

Opening remarks delivered by Dr. Mohammed Simsim, Director General of Corporate Services, Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), during an open dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Awareness and Literacy at IsDB Group, held on 7 July 2026. The remarks were revised to keep the relevant statistics up to date.

Thank you for joining us today for this AI Awareness and Literacy Event. Your participation reflects the importance we all attach to strengthening AI literacy, fostering innovation, and promoting the responsible adoption of emerging technologies across our institution and with our partners.

Global research suggests that many organizations remain in intermediate stages of digital transformation, while the highest levels of maturity remain relatively uncommon.

• The Maturity Bottleneck: According to Gartner, 60% of digital workplaces are still focused on modernizing workplace infrastructure, with relatively few having achieved a highly mature digital employee experience.
• The Middle-of-the-Pack Reality: Deloitte’s 2026 global survey of 1,587 large family businesses found that 48% considered their technology investment moderately or insufficiently adequate. Similarly, 37% described themselves as being at a moderate stage of overall digital investment and another 11% at a minimal stage.
• The Elusive Top Tier: The highest levels of digital and AI maturity remain exceptionally rare. McKinsey’s 2025 global research found that only 1% of leaders considered their companies mature in AI deployment, defined as having AI fully integrated into workflows and generating substantial business outcomes. BCG’s 2025 global study paints a similar picture, finding that only 5% of companies were “future-built” AI leaders generating value at scale.

These figures show that while AI adoption is accelerating globally, translating digital ambition into sustainable institutional value remains a challenge. They also remind us that AI transformation is not only a technical journey; it is equally a people, culture, governance, and change-management journey.

To support this vision, we are working towards a unified and well-governed AI platform that provides colleagues across the IsDB Group with trusted AI capabilities, advanced analytics, and integrated tools to enhance productivity, innovation, and decision-making. Our objective is not merely to deploy AI technologies, but to build an AI-ready workforce and cultivate a culture of continuous innovation in support of One IsDB Group.

At the same time, we recognize that innovation must be accompanied by trust. AI governance is therefore embedded from the outset of our journey, building on our strengths in information management, data governance, cybersecurity, risk management, and compliance. Our approach is designed to enable innovation while ensuring the responsible, secure, transparent, and ethical use of AI.

Allow me to conclude with three key messages:

• First, we will pursue AI with purpose, focusing on initiatives that deliver measurable value, institutional efficiency, and development impact.
• Second, we will ensure that governance, security, ethics, accountability, and human oversight remain at the core of our AI journey.
• Third, we will continue to strengthen AI awareness, learning, collaboration, and responsible experimentation across the IsDB Group and with relevant partners.

The future of AI at the IsDB Group is not about technology alone. Technology is an important enabler, but the real value will come from how we empower our people, strengthen our capabilities, improve the way we work, and accelerate the delivery of our strategic objectives and development impact.

I look forward to an engaging, practical, and insightful session, and I thank all colleagues, speakers, and guests for their contributions to this important dialogue.

والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته