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Welcome to Xchange by Money20/20 Middle East – where money meets ideas 

Bold thought

What if the future of finance doesn’t arrive as a breakthrough – but as a series of permissions?

Permissions for machines to act, for money to be programmable, for regulators to say “yes, but safely.” 

Snapshot

Three things are converging – and the Middle East is testing all of them at once.

First, AI has crossed a line. It’s no longer just helping humans make decisions; it’s beginning to execute them. When payments, compliance checks or purchasing decisions can be delegated to software agents, finance stops being a workflow and starts becoming autonomous.

Second, money itself is becoming software. Multi-CBDC experiments and real-world asset tokenisation are supporting settlement speed and counterparty risk reduction, and defining who controls the rails. When cross-border money moves in real time, entire business models shift.

Third, infrastructure is catching up. Instant payments and open banking make everything else possible. Without them, AI and programmable money stay trapped in pilots.

Regulators across the region are allowing these technologies to be tested together. And it’s that combination (not any single innovation on its own) that really changes the game.

Voices

Jack Dorsey (Co-founder and CEO at Block):

“Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company. We're already seeing it internally. A significantly smaller team using the tools can do more and do it better.” (Source: this interview with Reuters)

McKinsey:

“AI agents won’t care about brand loyalty. They will optimise for outcomes.” (Source: The end of inertia: Agentic AI’s disruption of retail and SME banking) 

What to watch and do

• Watch: How fast AI moves from pilots to production in regulated financial workflows – especially payments, AML and credit.
• Watch: Whether tokenisation shifts from landmark deals to repeatable issuance models.
• Do: Ask a simple question internally: Which parts of our business still assume humans must be in every loop – and why?

Further reading…

• AI adoption and governance trends inside the DIFC – DFSA, 2025 
• What multi-CBDC experiments are really testing – BIS Innovation Hub, 2024
• Why Gulf markets are moving early on tokenisation and payment rails – Reuters, 2025 

Share your perspective 

We want to know what you think – can regulatory go-ahead enable better, faster tech development? Open this newsletter on LinkedIn and tell us in the comments. 

We’ll see you back in your inbox next week.

Catch you next week,

The Money20/20 Middle East Team