Explore the Fast Company Middle East’s Most Innovative Companies 2025 list, featuring 56 winning entries reshaping businesses and industries. We’ve selected the companies making the most significant impact with their initiatives across 24 categories, including the most innovative AI and data science, sustainability, energy, finance & fintech, and women-backed companies.

Digital innovation and AI are transforming the way businesses connect with their audiences. By leveraging data-driven insights, automation, and analytics, as well as implementing omnichannel marketing strategies, these companies are crafting personalized experiences that engage, inspire, and drive results. 

Digitas 

For intelligent marketing systems

Through its proprietary operating model, experience intelligence, Digitas integrates AI, design, and cultural insight to develop responsive and data-driven marketing ecosystems. Over the past year, Digitas has enabled Emirates NBD to reduce redundant communications by 40 percent, resulting in significant savings. It developed an AI-powered hiring platform for Bab Rizq Jameel, which automated 70 percent of CV processing and reduced recruiter screening time by half. Additionally, it unified Miral’s guest data ecosystem to enhance personalization and reduce operational overlap by 40 percent. By prioritizing efficiency, innovation, and inclusivity, Digitas positions marketing as an intelligent, sustainable system that evolves and improves through continuous interaction and feedback.

Publicis Media Middle East 

For reshaping brands’ connection with consumers 

Publicis Media Middle East is reshaping how brands connect with consumers by pioneering retail media, advertising that reaches people where they discover and shop, online or in-store. Over the past year, the agency has co-built and launched data-driven retail networks for partners including Careem, The Luxury Closet, Carrefour, Landmark Group, and Alshaya, enabling brands to engage customers at the moment of purchase. Its innovation extends beyond campaigns to building media ecosystems, from Carrefour’s in-store programmatic audience platform to Nivea’s retail pilot that achieved a 102 percent sales increase. These initiatives have helped retailers unlock new revenue streams while allowing brands to measure impact directly in sales terms. Publicis Media Middle East continues to advance the region’s retail media capabilities, demonstrating that when creativity meets commerce, marketing becomes both meaningful and measurable.

WPP Media

For redefining media for the AI era

Over the past year, WPP Media Middle East has undergone a complete transformation, rebranding from GroupM to WPP Media. This move reflects its evolution into a fully integrated, AI-powered media collective. The region became one of the first to operationalize WPP Open, the company’s proprietary AI platform that unifies data, creative, and media into a single intelligent ecosystem. Since its launch, over 480 employees have adopted the platform, using it more than 20 times per user on average within five months. The agency also launched a dedicated learning hub, hosting AI training sessions attended by more than 60% of its workforce, alongside the creation of an AI Champions Committee to drive adoption and establish best practices.