In an exclusive media roundtable in Riyadh, Genesys CEO Tony Bates says AI must work “hand-in-hand” with people to deliver empathetic, personalized customer experiences aligned with Saudi Vision 2030.

As Saudi organizations race to modernize customer engagement, Genesys CEO Tony Bates says business is moving decisively from a traditional service economy to what he called an “experience economy,” where loyalty, trust and personalization matter as much as efficiency.

Speaking during an exclusive media roundtable in Riyadh, Bates confirmed that Genesys is planning to launch a full-service Genesys Cloud region in Saudi Arabia by the end of 2026, calling it a strategic investment that will help enterprises evolve to secure, compliant, AI-powered “experience orchestration.”

“The pressure on businesses is real,” Bates said, pointing to common customer experience pain points such as disjointed journeys, ineffective handoffs and impersonal service. “In an experience economy, efficiency isn’t enough. The winners will be those who can deliver dynamic, human-centered experiences at scale.”

From cost center to growth engine
Bates described a clear shift in how executives view contact centers and customer experience functions - from a support cost to a revenue-and-loyalty driver. He noted that performance measurement has evolved over the past decade: from handle times and queues, to efficiency and brand metrics, and increasingly toward revenue growth metrics, driven by better customer targeting, cross-sell opportunities and higher retention.

Genesys positions its AI-powered experience orchestration platform to support that transition, enabling enterprises to “automate, augment, personalize and optimize” interactions across channels.

AI is a teammate - not a replacement
Addressing workforce concerns, Bates stressed that Genesys is not seeing significant headcount reductions within contact centers today. Instead, he said many organizations are deploying AI to automate repetitive tasks and augment human agents, enabling them to handle unmet demand and more complex cases. “In the long term, it’s probable some roles with heavy administrative workloads will change,” he said. “But the goal is not replacing people - it’s orchestrating AI and humans as one team.”

Bates framed this as the next frontier: agentic AI, where AI systems can learn, adapt and make decisions in real time to support dynamic, empathetic engagement -including knowing when to route to human agent. “The most important thing in customer experience is that the customer feels it’s personal,” he said, offering a simple example: a digital banking task can feel easy for one user and intimidating for another. “Orchestration is about doing the right thing at the right time, with the right level of human support.”

Strategic partnerships: collapsing complexity
Bates also highlighted deep partnerships with Salesforce and ServiceNow, describing how enterprises want fewer disconnected systems and more end-to-end experiences that connect front, mid and back office workflows. In his view, large organizations are increasingly choosing strategic platforms that solve business problems rather than operating in siloed technology stacks - a shift that helps unify employee workflows and customer journeys.

Saudi momentum and Vision 2030 alignment
Genesys says its business is accelerating in the Kingdom. In the second quarter of its fiscal year, Genesys Cloud annual recurring revenue (ARR) in Saudi Arabia grew by over 55% year-on-year, while customer count in the Kingdom grew by nearly 25% year-on-year. By sector, Saudi Genesys Cloud ARR growth exceeded 115% in technology, 85% in public sector, and **45% in industrial during the same period. Bates said Genesys’ Saudi regional headquarters serves as a Middle East hub across three pillars: education and enablement, building cloud and AI expertise, and developing a robust ecosystem of customers, partners and employees.

He linked the company’s work to Vision 2030 outcomes, including more seamless digital government interactions, improved tourism and travel experiences, and modernized citizen services - while supporting cloud adoption, AI upskilling and operational modernization.