News

6 Automation Tools Transforming Middle Eastern Businesses

From finance to HR, automation is helping companies in the region cut costs, reduce risk, and focus on smarter, higher-value work.

Published

1 year ago

July 28, 2025

Nour Nasir

6 automation tools transforming middle eastern businesses

As growth accelerates across the Middle East, businesses are under pressure to run leaner, faster, and smarter. In the UAE alone, 64% of companies plan to increase their automation budgets in 2025, targeting finance, HR, and customer support in particular. With that momentum building, here are six automation tools already reshaping how regional companies operate.

Spend Management

Spend management platforms are replacing manual expense workflows with real-time control. Tools like Qashio automate approvals, issue custom corporate cards, and integrate directly with ERP systems — giving companies visibility into spend patterns and reducing fraud and delays. Travel businesses using Qashio for Travel, for example, have cut FX losses and streamlined reconciliation. Even smaller teams benefit from built-in rewards like air miles and hotel points.

HR Automation

HR automation platforms are potentially reducing thousands of errors and freeing up time. From applicant tracking to payroll, these systems replace repetitive admin with centralized dashboards for leave, benefits, tax documents, and onboarding. The result is lower compliance risk and more time for strategic HR initiatives like retention and workplace culture.

Marketing

Marketing teams are also scaling faster with automation. Tools now handle email targeting, social scheduling, lead scoring, and cross-channel analytics — creating smarter, data-driven campaigns without manual effort. Rather than chasing clicks, teams can focus on high-converting journeys, backed by real user behavior.

Customer Support

Customer support automation is another game-changer. As demand rises, chatbots, smart ticketing, and real-time translation help resolve basic queries instantly. A 2025 survey by Zendesk found 90% of C-level execs expect most customer issues to be handled without human agents in the near future. These platforms improve satisfaction while reducing overhead, keeping teams lean without compromising service.

Project Management

Project management tools are bringing structure to distributed teams. They offer live updates, task tracking, and performance insights in one place — helping managers spot delays early, keep teams accountable, and maintain transparency with stakeholders. As businesses scale, automated coordination becomes essential.

Procurement

Procurement automation is tackling one of the most overlooked inefficiencies. These systems digitize purchase requests, approvals, vendor management, and invoice tracking, often with real-time budget controls and ERP sync. The result is faster cycles, better compliance, and stronger supplier relationships.

With automation gaining traction across every core function, Middle East businesses are entering a new operational era. CEOs know what’s at stake: 60% say they’ll need to evolve significantly over the next decade to stay competitive. For many, that evolution has already begun.

News

Instagram Redraws Its Wordmark And The Internet Reads “Instagzam”

Instagram’s first wordmark refresh in a decade arrives with new fonts, a restrained gradient — and a Reddit verdict of sidegrade.

Published

4 days ago

August 14, 2026

Nour Nasir

Instagram

Although Instagram’s famous camera icon hasn’t changed, the company has refreshed the handwritten wordmark at the top of its app. This is the first redesign we’ve seen in ten years, and one the internet promptly set about renaming.

“The wordmark at the top of the app hasn’t changed in 10 years, so it was time for a refresh,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote in a post on August 13, describing the new version as “cleaner and more modern” while keeping references to the original design.

Instagram says its team explored hundreds of options — all-caps lettering, camera-inspired concepts, even literal handwriting — before returning to script. “Script reflects individuality, so referencing that felt right,” Instagram director of product design Jasmine Probst said in Meta’s announcement. “The new wordmark is bolder and simpler, with touches of unexpectedness. It cues individual expression, a personal voice, both of which have always been core to Instagram”.

The wordmark is part of a broader brand overhaul: an updated Instagram Sans typeface, two new fonts — the hand-drawn Instagram Pen and Instagram Mono — plus refreshed motion and layouts, and more restrained use of the signature gradient. The wordmark is rolling out globally now, with the rest arriving throughout 2026 and beyond.

Also Read: Spotify Will Now Tell You If Your Favorite Artist Isn’t Real

The design mixes cursive and print lettering, some characters connected and others floating free. That hybrid approach, combined with unusually shaped “s” and “r” characters, led some users to conclude the logo actually reads “Instagzam”. On the r/logodesign subreddit, one user said the wordmark looked “fan-made,” like something built in Canva; another called it “an unsettling mix of manuscript and cursive”; a third summarized it as a “sidegrade” — or, inevitably, a “zidegrade”.

Not everyone was hostile to the new look. Some found the half-cursive design stylish and surprisingly readable, while others called it an improvement on its predecessor, and one commenter argued Instagram was simply adopting minimalist branding later than everyone else. Either way, the platform now has a refreshed identity, three updated fonts, and an unofficial new pronunciation.