Ronaldo Mouchawar

“When I co-founded Souq.com in 2005, fewer than one in ten consumers were willing to transact online. There was almost no digital infrastructure, limited venture capital, and little belief that the Arab world could produce leading technology companies. What I’ve witnessed since is a transformation from a trading region into a thriving digital economy. At the foundation of this transformation was trust – trust built one delivery at a time, one secure payment, one promise kept. Combined with visionary government leadership and a young, digitally native population, the region moved from adopting digital innovation to shaping its future, keeping customers at the heart of every innovation. This customer obsession is what turned Souq.com into the region’s first unicorn, what attracted Amazon’s acquisition in 2017, and what continues to push us to innovate today.

The next chapter of this region’s transformation will be defined by how we leverage technology and AI to anticipate needs, remove friction, and create new opportunities. We’ve already been using AI meaningfully across our business for over 25 years, it’s in everything we do – from personalized recommendations for customers to helping sellers create better listings, AI models that understand local preferences and cultural context, inventory placement predictions so we can deliver in minutes through Amazon Now. Over the next 30 years, AI will continue to become the invisible infrastructure that enables an entire generation of entrepreneurs across the Gulf to build. The companies that harness it to understand and serve customers, not simply sell to them, will define the next era.

To Gulf Business and its readers: congratulations on 30 years. You’ve chronicled a region that refuses to wait for the future, choosing instead to build it. At Amazon, we share that ambition – and for this region, the best chapters are still being written.”