Middle East regional brief · 2026
Fast, ambitious, and unevenly mature
The Middle East is in active transition. Automation, runtime security, and AI adoption are all climbing quickly, while implementation maturity has not yet scaled evenly across organizations.
01 · Automation
have automated response actions enabled, up from 17% a year ago
The single largest move in the region. Machine-speed response is now the expectation, not the ambition.
3.3× in twelve months
+39 percentage points
02 · Runtime security
of global Falco users are in the Middle East
Against 0.07% reported in 2025 — a share that barely registered a year ago.
Both tracks read on the same 0–10% scale
Roughly 63× growth in a single year
03 · AI-powered security
of Sysdig customers in the region use Sysdig's GenAI assistant
The region is not waiting to be convinced on AI for security itself.
62 of every 100 customers
04 · Identity mix
of cloud-managed identities are human
Nearly double the global average of 2.8%. Everything else is a machine that still needs governing.
Middle East
Global average
05 · Exposure variance
of AI and ML packages were publicly exposed in the highest-exposure environment recorded
Typical exposure sits near the global norm. The spread is the risk, not the average.
Share of AI and ML packages publicly exposed
Same region, same year — a 66-point spread
between typical and highest recorded
06 · Detection coverage
use behavioral detections, a little below the global average of 75%
Close, not level. The gap is the last stretch of the shift to higher-fidelity detection.
The momentum
Where the region moved in a year
Three measures, one year apart. The momentum is real, but it is not uniform.
Each dial reads on a 100% scale · inner ring 2025 · outer ring 2026
56%
Automated response actions enabled
2025: 17%
4.4%
Share of global Falco users
2025: 0.07%
23%
Managing identities within a cloud service provider
2025: 20%
The takeaway
Innovation is outpacing consistency across the Middle East. The next move is closing exposure variance before fast adoption compounds it.
Where does your environment sit in the spread?
We can walk through your numbers against the regional baseline and show you where the exposure risk concentrates.
Talk through your numbers