Emirates NBD ranked #1 in inaugural Evident AI Index for Banks – Middle East and Africa

2 Min | 02 June 2026

Emirates NBD leads amongst 25 of the region’s largest banks in independent benchmark for AI maturity
Only bank to achieve top three performance across Talent, Innovation and Leadership pillars, reinforcing its position as the region's most AI-advanced bank

Dubai, UAE, 2 June 2026: Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye (MENAT) region, has been ranked first in the inaugural Evident AI Index for Banks – Middle East and Africa (MEA), underscoring the bank’s position as one of the region’s most advanced financial institutions in artificial intelligence maturity.

The Evident AI Index is the first independent, data-driven benchmark of AI maturity in the banking sector, evaluating the region’s largest financial institutions across four key pillars: Talent, Innovation, Leadership and Transparency. Emirates NBD’s top ranking in this inaugural index reflects its exceptional performance across these benchmarks, demonstrating the strength of its AI strategy, not as a standalone technology agenda, but as a core business capability integrated across its organisation.

This recognition underscores Emirates NBD’s commitment to driving the future of digital banking. AI-enabled transformation is a defined strategic priority for Emirates NBD, embedded across the Group's business strategy, customer agenda and people programmes, and closely aligned with the UAE’s broader AI and digital transformation agenda.

Shayne Nelson, Group Chief Executive Officer at Emirates NBD, said: “This recognition is a testament to our aspiration to lead the region in innovative, customer-centric banking. Our approach is to embed AI deep within our culture, ensuring our technology directly empowers our workforce and simplifies the banking experience for our customers. As we advance our AI-enabled transformation, we will continue to invest in our talent, innovation and the future of banking, further strengthening our position as the leading banking group across the region.”

Alexandra Mousavizadeh, co-founder and CEO of Evident, said: "Emirates NBD's top performance in the Evident AI Index reflects its balanced approach to AI transformation, with strong performance across our measurement of Talent, Innovation and Leadership. It displays the hallmarks of a bank that has laid the foundations for AI transformation, reflected in the highest AI talent volume of Middle Eastern banks, particularly in software implementation and product management talent. These early investments are beginning to translate into meaningful deployment and scaling of AI use cases across the enterprise, documenting strong reported outcomes attached to those deployments, particularly in HR optimisation."

The ranking positions Emirates NBD ahead of 24 of the region's largest banks across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Qatar, Kuwait, Morocco, Israel, Egypt and Jordan. The full Evident AI Index report is available at www.evidentinsights.com/banking-ai-index-mea.