By Joseph George
As the new academic year begins, educators, group technology chiefs and platform providers across the Gulf describe a decisive move away from standalone classroom apps towards unified institutional systems, driven by cost pressure, data compliance requirements and the demands of responsible artificial intelligence adoption
Dubai, Sept 3, 2026: Schools across the GCC are auditing their technology stacks and consolidating standalone applications into unified platforms ahead of the 2026-27 academic year.
The shift, which many have described as long overdue, is being driven by rising costs, data fragmentation, tighter regulatory reporting requirements and the need to roll out artificial intelligence safely across teaching, administration and communication.
GEMS Education, which operates 47 schools across the UAE and Qatar, says its schools were using 1,600 different applications in 2026. The group has since narrowed that number to 400 applications that align with its principles of learning science and data science, as part of a move to unify five separate student information systems onto a single cloud-and-artificial-intelligence platform called tmrw.
Dr Aidan McCarthy, Interim Chief Technology Officer at GEMS Education says the group expects to save $5 million in the coming school year through the consolidation, while more than 700 on-premise servers could be decommissioned, adding further savings in infrastructure and technical management.
