Between national ambition and the reality on the ground, Tunisian companies are learning to transform artificial intelligence into a competitive advantage. An analysis of the factors that separate projects that break through from those that falter.
The figure is as surprising as it is revealing. According to EY Tunisia’s 2026 Barometer, conducted with 278 executives from January to March 2026, only 16% of the country’s companies report an operational deployment of artificial intelligence in at least one business process.
A third among them are still at the stage of strategic reflection, and 27% limit themselves to occasional experiments. AI in Tunisia thus exists, but it moves forward in small steps, slowed by a lack of internal skills and budgetary constraints.
This cautious assessment is confirmed by the Tunisian Institute of Competitiveness and Quantitative Studies. In its Analytical Note No. 78 published in May 2026, ITCEQ notes a striking paradox: 86% of companies see advanced technologies as a lever for innovation, but only 19% report having actually innovated thanks to them.
The digital base exists, with 76.2% of private companies having a website and 72.5% using digital management tools, but the ability to translate this equipment into added value remains largely uneven. Microsoft’s Global AI Diffusion report indeed places Tunisia at 80th worldwide for AI adoption, with 13.5% of the workforce using AI in Q1 2026, far behind the United Arab Emirates or Singapore.
In light of this, a dominant question dominates the country’s economic debates: what distinguishes Tunisian companies that truly succeed in their transition to AI from those that get bogged down in perpetual experimentation? Levers consistently reappear in analyses beyond field feedback.
A clear vision before the technology
