In an interview with Gulf Business, Emmanuel Marill, Managing Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at OpenAI, discussed the company's enterprise adoption and commercial strategy across the UAE and the wider MENA region. According to OpenAI, paid ChatGPT consumer subscriptions in the UAE rose by more than 80 per cent in the year to September 2026, while an estimated four in five adults aged 18 to 34 in the country use the platform weekly.
Addressing governance and data sovereignty concerns, Marill stated that OpenAI does not train its AI models on enterprise customer data, and corporate clients retain ownership of their intellectual property. For organisations with strict regulatory requirements in the public sector, healthcare, and finance, OpenAI offers Inference Residency in the UAE, ensuring model execution remains on graphics processing units (GPUs) located within the country.
Marill also addressed the expansion of ChatGPT Ads across nine regional markets: the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Turkey, Jordan, and Bahrain. The company introduced a regional self-serve advertising platform aimed at startups and small businesses, coming after OpenAI's global advertising business achieved a $1 billion annual run rate in under 200 days.
Globally, approximately 20 per cent of ChatGPT conversations reflect commercial intent, Marill noted, adding that regional ad campaigns recorded an average decline of roughly 60 per cent in cost per purchase over a six-week span.
Sources
- Gulf Business · 2026-10-30
