Zain Group made a strategic leap in its data transformation journey through the establishment of the Group Data Office, reinforcing its commitment to responsible, secure, and innovative data management across all markets. The Data Office assumed full ownership of the Group Data Management and Privacy Frameworks, ensuring a unified and future-ready approach aligned with international best practices. The Group Board approved major enhancements to the data privacy policies to strengthen personal data protection and ensure full compliance across all Zain entities. In addition, a new data privacy and protection framework is being developed with clear governance structures, defined accountability, and standardized privacy practices across Zain’s operations.

The new Zain Group Data Privacy Framework serves as the Group’s unified, binding, and operational governance model for managing personal and sensitive data across all subsidiaries, affiliates, and operating companies. It defines the principles, structures, and mandatory controls governing how personal data is collected, used, stored, shared, transferred, retained, and disposed of throughout its lifecycle. The Framework consolidates applicable legal requirements, international standards, and internal governance practices into a single reference that applies to all business functions, systems, technologies, and third-parties acting on behalf of Zain.

Zain’s subsidiaries, affiliates, and operating companies are in the process of appointing qualified Data Protection Officers and adopting the updated policy and its associated controls within their operations. This Group-wide alignment strengthens privacy governance and harmonizes data protection practices across all entities. As implementation progresses, Zain reinforces its commitment to ethical data stewardship and strengthens trust with customers, regulators, and partners.

Through this Framework, Zain embeds privacy into corporate governance, system design, and operational processes, ensuring that digital and technological initiatives including analytics, artificial intelligence, and cloud-based services follow the privacy-by-design principle. Ultimately, the Framework functions as the Group’s authoritative reference for safeguarding personal data, upholding regulatory trust, and supporting responsible and secure operations across all jurisdictions. It positions data protection not only as a compliance requirement but as a strategic enabler of innovation, transparency, and sustainable digital transformation.

Zain operates within a rapidly evolving privacy regulatory environment across Kuwait, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, and global jurisdictions. Kuwait continues to advance its national privacy landscape through new mandates and enforcement expectations from authorities such as the National Cyber Security Center and the Communications and Information Technology Regulatory Authority (CITRA). Across the GCC, countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman have enacted comprehensive data protection laws and cybersecurity frameworks. Internationally, regulations such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), UK Data Protection Act, and sector-specific standards, are increasingly influencing cross-border requirements, data subject rights, and expectations for accountability and lawful processing.

Zain’s unified Data Privacy Policy is the Group’s formal statement of commitment to protecting the personal data of all individuals who interact with its services across the Middle East and Africa. The Policy establishes the principles, legal bases, governance structures, and operational requirements that apply to the collection, processing, storage, sharing, transfer, retention, and deletion of personal data across all Zain entities, subsidiaries, and digital channels.

Zain Group further advanced its Artificial Intelligence agenda in 2025 by pursuing a structured portfolio of AI proof-of-concepts (PoC) and trials across its operations, working closely with strategic partners to validate high-impact use cases in network operations, customer experience and energy efficiency. Across several markets, role-based Copilots and scenario-based Agents, including solutions for Radio, IP NOC, FTTH, DWDM and power optimization, are being trialed to support natural-language operations and maintenance, automated fault diagnosis, experience assurance and intelligent energy saving, with PoC objectives such as shorter fault-resolution times, lower complaint rates and more efficient use of engineering resources. In parallel, multi-domain observability and anomaly-detection PoCs are underway to automatically discover and map 4G/5G RAN and IP transport topologies and to correlate service degradation, forming the basis of an AI-enabled high-precision IP layer that provides end-to-end service visibility for operations teams. Complementing these initiatives, Zain is conducting energy-optimization trials in Jordan and Iraq that use AI-driven spectrum energization and traffic-aware control to explore potential energy savings of up to 54% on selected bands while maintaining customer experience. Collectively, these efforts are designed to confirm technical feasibility, quantify business benefits, and define a clear roadmap for the scaled deployment of AI capabilities across Zain’s networks in the coming years.

In Kuwait, the Group accelerated the practical adoption of generative AI in network operations through the launch of the region’s first AI Digital Assistant for Wireless Site Engineers. Deployed in collaboration with Huawei, the solution (FME Mate) leverages large language model capabilities and natural-language interaction to help engineers rapidly access fault data and connection topologies, pinpoint root causes with higher precision, and recommend corrective actions without relying on complex command-based workflows. Early results indicate an improvement in fault-handling efficiency of more than 20% across approximately 90% of cases, with an expected reduction of more than 2,250 hours of annual site downtime, reinforcing Zain’s roadmap toward smarter, more autonomous operations.

Aligned with Zain Group’s ‘4WARD – Progress with Purpose’ strategy, which is built on the four forces of Customer Delight, Digital Zain, Purpose & Action, and Collaborative Growth, Zain Kuwait advanced its network leadership with the commercial launch of 5G-Advanced on 30 June 2025. The rollout delivered coverage across Kuwait following extensive readiness and field testing. Beyond higher capacity, 5G-Advanced introduces ultra-low latency and smarter bandwidth management through component carrier aggregation, strengthening Kuwait’s readiness for future technology generations, including the pathway toward 6G. This milestone followed CITRA’s enablement of 5G-Advanced in Kuwait, supporting the national direction to upgrade digital infrastructure and readiness for future technology generations. For Zain Kuwait, network expansion is being translated into measurable improvements in customer experience, through more resilient connectivity, higher capacity, and more consistent performance in high-demand areas, enabling customers to benefit from a richer, more reliable digital experience in everyday use. These enhancements also support more responsive digital interactions across key customer moments, reinforcing Zain Kuwait’s focus on service quality, reliability, and experience-led network evolution. The launch also strengthens the platform for enterprise and public-sector digitization, enabling smart services and scalable IoT connectivity that depend on high-throughput, real-time networks. At the same time, it extends the foundation for innovation opportunities and collaborative partnerships across Kuwait’s digital ecosystem, aligning advanced connectivity with national priorities and future market needs. Collectively, these enablers and features support Kuwait Vision 2035 by contributing to nationwide digital transformation and elevating the overall digital experience for citizens, customers, and businesses.

Zain is advancing its Digital Business Support Systems (BSS) transformation, strengthening digital capabilities, enhancing customer experiences, and driving long-term value creation across its markets.

In Zain Kuwait, a key milestone was achieved with the awarding to Huawei to lead the Digital BSS transformation across both B2C and B2B domains, supporting future scalability and enhanced monetization capabilities.

Zain Sudan demonstrated exceptional speed and resilience by delivering its Digital BSS at an accelerated pace despite highly challenging operating conditions, underscoring the company’s ability to execute critical transformation initiatives under extreme circumstances.

Zain Bahrain continued its Digital BSS transformation through a drop-based delivery model, enabling faster time-to-market and incremental value realization.

Zain Iraq continued advancing its BSS AI roadmap with a strong focus on customer-centric use cases, aimed at improving customer experience, engagement, and retention.

At the Group level, Zain Group launched the Digital Factory Guideline for Zain Telecom Operators during the BSS & Digital User Forum in December 2025. The Digital Factory provides a scalable operating model to accelerate digital channel development, improve time-to-market, and strengthen alignment between business and IT, enabling future-ready digital capabilities across Zain operations.