Technology experts say Jordan needs to move quickly to update its national artificial intelligence strategy and adopt a package of strategic priorities to protect the digital gains it has made in the sector, after the Kingdom placed 49th globally and 2nd regionally in the 2026 Global Index on Responsible AI (GIRAI).
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The index, issued by the Global Center for AI Governance, ranked Jordan among 135 countries and jurisdictions, putting it ahead of the Middle East regional average. The Global Index on responsible AI evaluates the extent to which countries develop and use AI in line with standards of ethics, governance, transparency, and the protection of human rights and communities.
Experts said the ranking reflects institutional groundwork laid in recent years, including Jordan's National AI Strategy, its 2023-2027 Implementation Plan, and a charter of ethics for AI use that the Kingdom has adopted. Although, they cautioned that sustaining the result will require moving from policy design to implementation, and from adopting AI tools to producing them.
From adoption to production
Hani Al-Batsh, an expert in digital transformation and AI, said Jordan has strong foundations for progress in the coming years, chiefly its human talent, government digital infrastructure, and national AI strategy.
Yet, he said the next phase must shift from drafting policy to execution and output, arguing that countries will increasingly compete not on the number of strategies they produce but on the global companies they build, the investment they attract, the patents they register, and AI's contribution to GDP.
"Setting the indicators aside, Jordan is still in a phase of adopting AI more than producing it," Al-Batsh said. "There is growing interest from government, universities and the private sector, and we are seeing wider use of generative AI tools, but that use is still concentrated on improving individual productivity rather than developing national solutions or exportable products."
He said many institutions still treat AI as a standalone technical project rather than a broader effort to redesign services, processes, and data-driven decision-making, and pointed to continuing gaps in data quality, computing capacity, and specialized talent in data science and AI engineering.
Al-Batsh said responsible AI use benefits government by speeding up services, improving the accuracy of decisions, raising spending efficiency, and helping combat waste and corruption, provided there are safeguards around transparency, data protection, cybersecurity, and accountability.
In the private sector, he said, it raises productivity, improves customer experience, lowers operating costs, and strengthens competitiveness, but requires clear governance to manage risk and protect intellectual property and data.
At the individual level, he said responsible use means stronger digital literacy, verifying content, protecting privacy, and not relying on AI for major decisions without human oversight.
He recommended building a national AI infrastructure that includes national data platforms, high-performance computing, and specialized data centers, arguing that data and computing power have become core infrastructure for the digital economy.
As well as for faster AI adoption in priority sectors such as health, education, industry, energy, agriculture, and government services, backed by clear performance indicators, along with investment incentives for AI startups, funding and incubation programs aimed at exportable products, updated university curricula, and national programs to train AI engineers, data scientists, and specialists in AI governance and cybersecurity.
A promising position, but a gap in enabling conditions
Wasfi Al-Safadi, a technology and telecommunications expert, said the report shows Jordan holds a promising competitive position in responsible AI, having placed 49th globally and 2nd regionally among 135 countries and jurisdictions, ahead of the regional average by a clear margin.
He said the result carries particular weight because the index measures not only technical capability but also governance, oversight mechanisms, and rights protections, suggesting Jordan has an institutional and policy base to build on, in line with the National AI Strategy and its 2023-2027 Implementation Plan.
Al-Safadi said Jordan's performance is strongest in the labor and skills pillar, where it ranked 20th globally and 1st regionally, along with strong results in government use of AI in public services. High scores in cybersecurity, public service efficiency, and consumer protection, he said, point to meaningful technical and institutional foundations that could become a lasting competitive advantage if training initiatives evolve into a sustained system for reskilling and capacity building.
At the same time, he said the report points to a real gap between Jordan's technical capabilities and the maturity of its legal and institutional environment for responsible AI. He cited Jordan's 75th-place ranking in the enabling conditions pillar, the absence of binding frameworks to protect children, weak treatment of AI's environmental impact, and a score of zero on public disclosure of government algorithmic systems, saying these should not be treated as secondary details.
"Trust in AI is not built through cybersecurity alone," Al-Safadi said. "It requires transparency, accountability, clear rights, and effective avenues for redress. The fact that the binding 2025 regulatory framework applies only to the banking sector, despite its importance, underscores the need to move from limited sectoral regulation to a more comprehensive national framework."
He said Jordan's strategic priority should not simply be improving its position in future rankings, but converting the weaknesses the report identified into a measurable institutional reform program.
That, he said, should include expanding legislative requirements to cover critical sectors, strengthening civil society's role in shaping digital policy, establishing disclosure and accountability mechanisms for government use of algorithms, factoring sustainability and energy use into technology procurement, and reinforcing protections for children and vulnerable groups.
He described the current ranking as a solid foundation rather than an end point, with the real opportunity being a shift from a relatively strong measured position to a regional model in application, institutionalization, and enforcement.
Building a national AI economy
Dr. Hamza Al-Akaileh, an expert in AI and data governance, said Jordan's position in the index reflects institutional progress accumulated over several years, including the development of the national AI strategy, digital transformation programs, investment in capacity building, expansion of digital government services, improved cybersecurity, and initiatives to train national talent in data and AI.
Al-Akaileh said the regulatory environment has also become more attuned to data protection, digital governance, and risk management, all factors now central to how countries are assessed in international indices.
However, he said this progress should be read strategically, since global indices are tools for measuring competitiveness rather than an end in themselves. Countries that have sustained progress in AI, he said, did so not because of the technology alone but because they translated index results into policy, investment, legislation, and national projects.
Maintaining Jordan's ranking, he said, will require moving from scattered initiatives toward an economy built around AI as national infrastructure rather than a tool used by a handful of institutions.
Al-Akaileh said expanding responsible AI use within government matters because smart government is not just about digitizing services, but about using predictive analytics to support decision-making, improve resource allocation, manage crises, forecast demand for health and education services, detect fraud early, and improve public spending efficiency.
Used with transparency, human oversight, and privacy protection, he said, AI becomes a tool for building trust between citizens and the state rather than simply automating procedures.
He said the private sector may be facing its biggest economic opportunity of the coming decade, noting that institutions using AI responsibly tend to see higher productivity, faster decision-making, better customer experience, improved risk management, and lower operating costs.
But he said those gains will not materialize if AI use remains limited to chat tools or content generation, and instead needs to be integrated into operations, data analytics, supply chains, cybersecurity, compliance management, and product and service development.
International reports, he added, indicate that the economic value of AI will increasingly depend on institutions' ability to build governance and trust as much as on the algorithms themselves.
"The role of individuals is no less important than that of governments and companies," Al-Akaileh said. "Responsible use starts with the user. AI tools should be treated as an intelligent assistant, not a substitute for critical thinking, and that requires verifying information, not sharing sensitive data, respecting intellectual property, and disclosing the use of AI-generated content when appropriate.
Societies with strong digital literacy will be better positioned to benefit from AI and less exposed to misinformation, fraud and related abuses. He said global competition is no longer only about building larger AI models, but about building national systems of digital trust, meaning investment in legislation, standards, algorithmic auditing, and AI ethics will become a decisive factor in attracting investment and global companies, much as cybersecurity has become a basic requirement of the digital economy.
To sustain momentum, Al-Akaileh called for updating the national AI strategy to keep pace with fast-moving developments, accelerating the issuance of responsible AI regulatory frameworks, strengthening national high-quality data infrastructure, expanding AI skills training for employees and students, supporting specialized startups, linking universities with industry, adopting clear standards for assessing risk and ethical impact, and encouraging local innovation in Arabic-language applications that address challenges in education, health, financial services, and digital government.
