The Complete Guide to Using AI in the Financial Services Industry in Bahrain in 2025

Bahrain's financial services sector sits at the center of a deliberate national push to use AI to diversify the economy and speed up service delivery: the Kingdom's National AI Strategy and ethics-driven policy roadmap set standards for transparency, accountability and privacy, and parliament approved a March 2025 roadmap to expand AI tools across ministries to accelerate services (see the national AI page and a recent industry summary).

Banks and fintechs are already piloting AI for fraud detection, credit scoring, robo‑advice and 24/7 chatbots (Batelco's Basma, ila Bank's Fatima and others), while the Central Bank of Bahrain supports safe experimentation through fintech sandboxes.

With workforce targets such as Tamkeen's plan to train 50,000 Bahrainis in AI by 2030, practical upskilling matters - programs like Nucamp's Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp teach promptcraft and applied AI skills that help compliance, risk and customer teams turn policy into measurable value.

The result: a regulatory-savvy, talent-ready financial hub where AI improves efficiency without sacrificing trust.

“The future of AI in Bahrain is incredibly promising and transformative,”

Bahrain's AI strategy is a tightly choreographed mix of national policy, ethics and practical timelines designed to bring AI into government and finance without sacrificing trust: in July 2025 the Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) published the National Policy for the Use of Artificial Intelligence, which frames adoption around four pillars - legal compliance, responsible AI use, public education and international cooperation - and explicitly aligns AI work with the Personal Data Protection Law, Open Data Policy and Economic Vision 2030 (iGA National Policy for the Use of Artificial Intelligence (July 2025)).

The wider National AI Strategy and governance materials map out concrete capacity-building and research moves - from the Artificial Intelligence Academy at Bahrain Polytechnic (a Microsoft partnership) to workshops and procurement guidance - while Tamkeen's target to train 50,000 Bahrainis in AI by 2030 provides a clear workforce timeline that turns policy into skills on the ground (Bahrain National AI Strategy and governance materials).

The approach balances innovation with regional ethical standards (the GCC ethics manual and UNESCO RAM participation) so banks and fintechs can scale pilots with oversight, and positions Bahrain as a practical regional leader rather than a technology outlier (Wilson Center analysis of Bahrain's AI strategy).

“promote the responsible and secure use of AI to drive economic and social growth, while improving government efficiency across key sectors.”

Bahrain's governance stack for AI combines a nation‑level policy push with concrete legal and ethical guardrails so banks and fintechs can scale responsibly: in July 2025 the Information & eGovernment Authority launched a National Policy that adopts the GCC Guiding Manual on AI ethics to preserve human autonomy, safety, justice and non‑discrimination while explicitly aligning AI use with the Personal Data Protection Law and the Open Data Policy (Bahrain iGA National AI Policy and GCC Ethics Manual).

That policy sits alongside a 2024 standalone AI law that codifies transparency, human‑oversight duties and bans on harmful uses - with penalties reported up to three years' imprisonment or fines around BD2,000 - and a Public Prosecution ethics document (19 legal articles) that the GCC endorsed to govern AI in judicial and prosecutorial settings (see Bahrain's AI overview for the full slate of core principles from human oversight to sustainability).

Practical governance is supported by procurement guidance, national workshops and an AI Academy to build skills, creating a system where clear rules, sectoral guidance and training reduce regulatory uncertainty and make ethical AI an operational advantage rather than an obstacle (Bahrain AI core principles and national programmes).

“the policy aims to promote the responsible and secure use of AI to drive economic and social growth, while improving government efficiency across key sectors.”

Regulation in Bahrain's financial sector rests on a clear, enforceable data‑protection foundation: the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL), enacted in 2018 and effective from August 1, 2019, together with 10 ministerial resolutions that flesh out duties from breach notification to technical safeguards and Data Protection Officer (DPO) rules - guidance that turns abstract principles into practical must‑haves for banks and fintechs (Bahrain Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) framework).

Key operational requirements should shape any AI project: appoint or register a DPO where required and notify the Authority within three days of that appointment, build technical and organisational measures to protect data, and be ready to report breaches to the regulator within 72 hours - no‑waiting grace period when customer data and trust are at stake.

Cross‑border flows are tightly controlled

(the Authority currently lists 83 countries with “adequate” protection; other transfers need permission, consent or narrow legal bases)

, so model training, cloud vendors and API partners must be mapped early in procurement.

Enforcement is real - civil remedies, fines (BHD 1,000–20,000) and criminal penalties for specified violations - so treating PDPL compliance as an operational risk program and competitive advantage will keep AI pilots out of the headlines and in customers' hands; practical implementation checklists and automation tools can accelerate that work while preserving data subjects' rights and regulatory confidence.

Bahraini banks and financial institutions are already putting AI to work across customer service, operations and investment workflows: AI‑powered chatbots - including Batelco's Basma, ila Bank's Fatima, Bahrain Islamic Bank's Dana and BIBF's Noora - provide instant, reliable service that lifts routine enquiries off phone lines and improves customer experience, while back‑office leaders deploy RPA to cut reconciliation costs and speed month‑end close (Bahrain Artificial Intelligence government page; see the chatbot and AI‑procurement guidance).

Treasury and asset teams are experimenting with algorithmic signals and portfolio optimisation prompts tailored to local markets, and compliance functions are adopting AI for smarter transaction monitoring and alerts that shift investigators toward higher‑value audit work (RPA for back‑office efficiency in Bahrain financial services, Research on Central Bank of Bahrain digital transformation).

The mix of customer‑facing bots, process automation and data‑driven investing shows a pragmatic, incremental adoption path that keeps regulatory compliance and operational resilience front and center.

Bahrain's private sector is a lively proving ground where startups, platforms and incumbent banks are turning policy into products: the Central Bank of Bahrain's regulatory sandbox and pro-innovation rulebook have helped a cluster of more than 120 fintechs grow rapidly since 2018, while partnerships between neobanks, payment players and marketplace lenders focus on Open Banking-enabled flows and account-to-account (A2A) payments that support faster, more personalised services (see the CBB fintech overview and Open Banking trends).

Tarabut Gateway - the first graduate of Bahrain's fintech sandbox - exemplifies how regional fintechs are partnering with banks to commercialise APIs and scale services across the Gulf, and Mastercard/Finicity-style thinking about AI-powered categorisation and predictive signals is already shaping smarter lending, real‑time payments and richer merchant analytics.

The result is a pragmatic ecosystem where sandbox pilots, clear rules and data-sharing rails let fintechs move from prototype to production without leaving compliance behind - imagine a marketplace where secure APIs, fraud signals and generative-AI prompts combine to turn raw transaction feeds into instant, actionable financial advice.

At LEAP 2025 Bahrain made a visible splash: a Tamkeen‑backed Bahrain Pavilion, organised with the Bahrain Technology Companies Society, brought 14 homegrown tech firms - from Twazn and Makkan to Numuw Telemedicine, Procode and Infinite Clouds - into the heart of Riyadh's biggest tech stage so they could pitch, partner and scale against a backdrop of global brands and more than 201,000+ visitors (see the official LEAP partners page); local press highlighted how the pavilion helped startups secure deals, investor meetings and regional traction (Bahrain News Agency report).

This mix of health‑tech, logistics, cloud and fintech enablers shows Bahrain's practical playbook: use national backing to get emerging companies access to major buyers, cloud and AI platform partners, and the kind of exposure that turns prototypes into production-ready services across the Gulf - a vivid reminder that small, well‑supported delegations can open big regional doors when global decision‑makers are in the room.

Building an AI‑ready financial services workforce in Bahrain is now a practical, programmatic push rather than an abstract goal: targeted cohorts and accelerator-style courses are closing the gap between policy and practice.

The BIBF's AWS Machine Learning Programme (delivered with Tamkeen and AWS) trains 60 Bahrainis on ML methods, AWS services and the operational implications of deploying models - entry requires Python, cloud familiarity and basic ML knowledge - while the BIBF's Data Science & AI Academy offers everything from bachelor's and master's tracks to short, focused professional qualifications and customised corporate training that help banks scale internal talent pipelines (BIBF AWS Machine Learning Programme, BIBF Data Science & AI Academy).

Tamkeen's AI Training Program complements this supply-side effort with three clear pathways - a 3‑day AI Generalist course (plus a sector-specific day for eligible professionals), an AI Specialist stream and a one‑day AI for Executives workshop - and a support mechanism that can cover 100% of training costs up to approved caps, which removes a major barrier for employers and teams (Tamkeen AI Training Program).

The result: short, intensive learning sprints for compliance officers, one‑week upskilling blocks for data teams and degree‑level pipelines for long‑term capacity - imagine a compliance analyst emerging from a 3‑day Tamkeen sprint able to author precise prompts and validate model outputs, turning abstract policy into auditable business practice overnight.

Practical implementation in Bahrain means treating AI as a staged, risk‑managed programme that turns national strategy into measurable outcomes: begin by aligning to regulator priorities - the Central Bank of Bahrain's digital transformation emphasis makes early engagement and sandboxing essential (Bahrain banking AI research evidence) - then pick a clear operating model (centralised, business‑unit led or hybrid) to avoid fragmented pilots and ensure repeatable governance (McKinsey's archetypes for generative AI are a helpful guide; see operational advice and scaling patterns in recent industry reviews: generative AI operating models and use cases in banking).

Prioritise high‑value, low‑risk pilots - real‑time fraud detection, KYC/AML automation, chatbots and document OCR are proven starters - while mapping data flows, cross‑border transfers, and cloud or API vendors early to meet Bahrain's data and privacy obligations.

Build explainability, privacy and security into every deployment (the four building blocks for responsible AI are explainability, regulation, privacy and security) and layer audit trails so compliance teams can validate models and reduce false positives as systems learn (responsible AI building blocks for banking).

Finally, invest in short, role‑based upskilling and an internal AI assurance function so investigators, compliance officers and product teams can move from manual review to supervising models - the

so what?

Executed well, this roadmap converts policy and sandbox wins into scalable services that cut costs, speed decisions and keep customer trust intact.

Looking ahead to 2025, Bahrain's financial-services future looks like an accelerating mash‑up of open banking, real‑time rails and AI‑driven personalization: market research forecasts the Bahrain open banking market to grow at a staggering 28.4% CAGR from 2025–2030 with projected revenues of about US$2.28 billion by 2030, a tailwind that will make account‑to‑account (A2A) payments and instant, data‑rich customer journeys far more common (Bahrain open banking market forecast (2025–2030)).

Expect banks and fintechs to pair sandboxed pilots and Open Banking APIs with generative‑AI prompts for smarter categorisation, lending signals and customer assistants - exactly the mix Mastercard flags as powering next‑gen payments, fraud mitigation and small‑business insights (Open banking trends and predictions for 2025).

Regulation and sandboxes will keep experiments safe while national pushes - Tamkeen's training targets and Bahrain's AI strategy - drive the talent pipeline, so operational teams can shift from manual reviews to supervising AI; for practical upskilling, targeted courses such as Nucamp's Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp registration teach promptcraft and applied AI skills that translate pilots into compliant production.

The upshot: faster, cheaper services that still respect privacy and explainability, where a single permissioned API call can turn a messy transaction feed into an instant, personalised financial recommendation - a vivid sign that Bahrain is moving from proof‑of‑concepts to day‑to‑day banking experiences powered by AI.