Ask ChatGPT | Perplexity | Claude | Google AI Mode to summarise and analyse this (long-ish…) post.

Can AI read Arabic? What we’ve learned (so far)

I don't think I'm alone in saying that if you're remotely into tech, your mind was blown when ChatGPT first came out.

Someone to bounce ideas off of as much as I wanted?! Ask a million questions about every curiosity I have without annoying it?! Sign me up and take my money!

It was great to see AI could be a genuinely helpful assistant in all sorts of things. From summarising technical reports, to coming up with recipes based on what I have left in the fridge at the end of the busy week...

I found AI writing tools can even assist in generating content for different languages, making content creation a little less painful. Sure, you'd still need to edit your arm off, which is when you'd start wondering whether it was worth it in the first place, but sometimes it worked.

Side note here, but when you pick an AI SEO tool, it's crucial to consider features like speed, ease of use, pro capabilities, integration with APIs, analytics, and the ability to maintain your brand voice and messaging. Additionally, AI tools can analyse large volumes of data to support SEO strategies, helping businesses make more informed decisions. These tools also help you adapt to changes in search engine algorithms and AI-driven updates, ensuring your strategies remain effective.

In any case, they were great... In English.

Other languages? Depends...

What triggered my curiosity was seeing how its way of answering and the accuracy of what it fed back to me were somewhat different when I used it in Spanish, English, or Romanian.

It got me thinking… If it sounds weird and sometimes even experimental in Spanish and Romanian (granted, not in English, of course), how well does it do with languages like Japanese, Arabic, and others?

So, I did some research, asked around via platforms like Quora or Reddit, and spoke with some people, and it seems that while AI development is thriving in the English language, in other languages, it’s not quite as impressive. Arabic is one of the languages that is struggling to keep up with the rise of AI.

Or more accurately, AI is struggling to keep up with Arabic. It often spits out disjointed gibberish that misses the mark on the nuance of the language. Understanding the target audience’s language and preferences is crucial for effective AI content optimisation, especially in diverse regions like the UAE. Do it right and it can increase organic traffic and visibility in AI search results, driving more traffic to your site and improving business outcomes.

As we’re expanding (exciting times!) to the Middle East, specifically to the UAE, it got me thinking… I know English is not an issue in the UAE, but surely, with AI reshaping how customers find and interact with brands, the lack of Arabic-proficient AI must be a concern for UAE businesses. Right?

For any online business operating in the region, these challenges can directly impact their ability to create content that resonates with both Arabic and English-speaking audiences and can affect overall SEO performance. AI tools can help identify on-page SEO opportunities, which is crucial for improving visibility and reaching a broader audience. Site audits can reveal new opportunities for internal linking and site structure improvements, helping you build topical authority and improve your SERP rankings.

Why is this seemingly advanced technology getting stuck with Arabic and what can we do to make sure UAE businesses benefit from AI opportunities? One way is by leveraging AI SEO tools to automate repetitive tasks in website management, freeing up time for more strategic efforts. Some platforms even offer a central dashboard or 'sites' hub for managing all your content and analytics, making it easier to oversee your SEO workflow.

Can AI tools handle Arabic queries?

The top AI tools, Gemini, Perplexity, and ChatGPT, all have multi-lingual capabilities. After all, they are trained algorithms. If they can learn to process information in one language, surely they can do it in others. 

And even though the quality isn’t always there, especially in languages like Arabic, it’s getting better thanks to advances in OCR (optical character recognition). 

The consensus is that English AI interactions are producing smoother, more accurate and more complete answers. While AI is by no means perfect in any language, Arabic is more often getting lost in translation, literally and figuratively. The output is just not at the same level as with English queries. 

When they get stuck, the big AI tools are defaulting to English for clarity. That’s all the proof we need that they don’t have a full grip on the Arabic language. Important information is being missed when Arabic speakers turn to AI for answers. 

I’d love to hear your perspective if you have experience with this yourself. 

What’s the issue with AI search optimisation for Arabic?

The full workings of AI will always be a mystery (to me, and us, at least)! But we did figure out some of the reasons that current AI models are hitting a roadblock when it comes to Arabic interactions. 

• Training material: Most LLMs are trained on online content. The problem with that is that there’s much more English language content online compared to Arabic language content. The difference is quite astonishing! English accounts for about 50% of online content, while Arabic only about 0.5%. There’s simply not enough data points for LLMs to teach themselves how to converse in Arabic or perfect themselves along the way.
  
  

• Language variations: Over 300 million people speak Arabic, and it’s the official language in more than 20 countries. That means there are a lot of different dialects and variations in how the language is used and it’s tripping up AI. 

Why is Arabic important for brand UX?

If AI is defaulting to the English language, should we as users? That’s just not going to work for UAE businesses or Government organisations, whether they are using AI to streamline their processes or get found by customers. 

• Customer behaviour: Most of the time, we want to do business or do our research in our own language. That’s where we’re most comfortable. So customers are searching for your business in Arabic, whether the results are high quality or not. 
  
  

• Customer experience: If customers are trying to use Arabic with AI and getting broken or limited results, they’re having a broken and limited experience. That’s not good for the customer journey. If we can’t trust what AI is saying about UAE businesses, it could be getting brands all wrong and leading customers astray.
  
  

• Brand perception: Disjointed AI answers about UAE businesses undermine the trust in the brand, fail to prove the relevance of the business in their search, and could prevent local customers from engaging with local businesses. If AI doesn’t get Arabic, it doesn’t get UAE businesses. 

Here’s a new section for your blog post, keeping your tone and structure in line, while delivering three specific tactics for UAE brands to boost visibility in local AI searches:

3 Tactics UAE brands can use to appear in local AI Searches

Let’s get practical. If your business operates in the UAE and you want AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity to get you, quote and show your brand to the right audience, you’ll need to give them something to work with.

Here are three tactics that actually move the needle when it comes to AI search optimisation in Arabic-speaking markets:

1. Create dual-language evergreen content

AI tools prefer structured, information-rich content, but they also default to English when in doubt. That doesn’t mean you should abandon Arabic. Instead, focus on bilingual evergreen pages that explain who you are, what you offer, and why you matter. Defining a clear topic for each evergreen page helps guide AI content generation and keyword research, ensuring your content is focused and relevant.

Think: your About page, product or service pages, and FAQs. Publish them in both English and Arabic. When creating content in both languages, it’s important to naturally incorporate the target keyword into your content for better SEO performance.

Why? Because this helps AI tools interpret your brand more accurately and serve relevant responses to users searching in either language. It also builds trust with human users who expect to read in Arabic.

Structuring your evergreen content with clear outlines can help plan and organise information for better optimisation. When using AI for content creation, providing a well-crafted prompt ensures the tool generates relevant and high-quality content. Additionally, maintaining a consistent brand voice across all content formats reinforces your brand identity and messaging.

2. Use structured data that signals location and language

Why? Because it’s the secret handshake between your website and AI tools. Add schema markup that makes your location, language, and service area crystal clear.

For example:

• Use inLanguage for both Arabic (ar) and English (en)

• Add areaServed and availableLanguage fields

• Mark your content with localBusiness, Organization, or Service schema types

APIs can be used to integrate structured data with your existing platforms, enabling seamless workflow and automation with minimal disruption.

This helps LLMs understand that you serve the UAE region and support Arabic-speaking audiences, improving your odds of being pulled into relevant answers.

3. Publish locally-relevant, searchable content

Yes, content is still king, even in the AI search world. But not just any content. You’ll need blog posts, guides, and micro-content that:

• Address local trends and search intent in the UAE

• Use region-specific keywords in both Arabic and English

• Reference local entities like Dubai Expo, Emirates ID, or relevant laws and lifestyle topics

Blogs are especially important for building topical authority and engaging local audiences. Incorporating images into your content can enhance engagement and improve search rankings. Using internal links within your content helps improve site navigation and SEO performance. AI tools can help improve content to make it more comprehensive and valuable for users.

This positions your brand as a trusted, regional source of truth, which is exactly what LLMs look for when surfacing answers.

A seamless publication process ensures your content is delivered to your audience in a timely manner across all platforms. Use analytics tools to track content performance and inform future strategies for ongoing optimization.

Common mistakes in AI content optimisation for Arabic

When it comes to AI content optimization for Arabic, even the most experienced digital marketers can stumble into a few common traps. Let’s take a deep dive into the most frequent mistakes we see, and, more importantly, how to sidestep them to achieve better search results and provide truly quality content for your audience.

1. Relying solely on machine translation. It’s tempting to use AI tools to instantly translate English content into Arabic, but this often leads to awkward phrasing, missing context, and a loss of nuance. Machine translations rarely capture the cultural and linguistic subtleties that make content resonate with Arabic-speaking users. To provide valuable insights and achieve higher engagement, always have a native speaker review and refine your AI-generated Arabic content.

2. Ignoring dialect differences. Arabic isn’t a one-size-fits-all language. Failing to consider regional dialects can result in content that feels generic or even confusing to your target audience. Digital marketers should research which dialect is most relevant for their UAE audience and tailor content accordingly, ensuring it feels authentic and relatable.

3. Overlooking structured data and metadata in Arabic. Many publishers focus on visible content but forget to optimize behind-the-scenes elements like schema markup, meta descriptions, and alt text in Arabic. This can limit your visibility in AI-driven search results. Make sure all elements of your site, visible and invisible, are optimised in both English and Arabic to maximize your reach.

4. Skipping keyword research for Arabic queries. Using the same keywords as your English content won’t cut it. Search intent and phrasing can differ dramatically in Arabic. Invest time in researching target keywords specifically for Arabic, using tools like SEMrush or Google Keyword Planner, to ensure your content aligns with what your audience is actually searching for.

5. Publishing thin or generic content. AI-generated content can sometimes lack depth or originality, especially if you’re just rephrasing existing English material. To provide quality content and stand out in search results, focus on creating comprehensive, locally relevant pieces that address specific topics and questions your audience cares about.

By being aware of these pitfalls and taking measures, you can streamline your content creation process, improve your site’s performance in AI-powered SERPs, and provide a richer experience for Arabic-speaking users.

How to leverage AI for valuable insights as a UAE business with Arabic-speaking customers

Let’s not be too pessimistic; all is not lost. There are still opportunities for businesses in the UAE to get found in AI searches by local customers. See how you are already faring in AI search visibility with our Brand Visibility Score tool.

• Regional LLMs: The poor quality of Arabic language AI responses hasn’t gone unnoticed. There are companies looking to close the gap. Regional LLMs built for the Arabic language could transform the AI experience as these models can be fed more Arabic training material and designed to navigate dialects and variations. AI tools can also create content calendars based on keyword research, ensuring businesses stay consistent and relevant in their content strategies. The benefits of using AI tools for content creation and optimisation include increased productivity, improved accuracy, and the ability to scale your content efforts efficiently.

Some Arabic AI tools grabbing attention are Falcon, Jais and Noor. These are still in their early stages, so their full capabilities are yet to be seen. They could make up for the shortcomings of other AI tools. For users seeking advanced features, the Pro version of these AI SEO tools often offers enhanced performance and more powerful capabilities.

• Bilingual content: You want AI to fully understand your business to be able to quote it in answers and do so accurately. (Psst, we’ve got a step-by-step guide to get you started with creating AI-optimised content.) If the big models are mostly trained on English, it makes sense to use some English language in your online presence.

This ensures AI can interpret and summarise the information you want to share with your customers and help them find you. However, that doesn’t mean leaving Arabic content behind altogether. That’s what your customers will be looking to read. We can’t forget the human readers among the robot readers! When evaluating AI tools, consider their cost-effectiveness compared to traditional content creation methods, as AI can deliver high-quality content at a lower overall cost.

• Bilingual brand authority: Content that explains the brand positioning and gives context is favoured by AI because it acts as a credibility checker. AI wants to know who it’s getting information from and why it should trust them. This is one of the things that sets Emirates apart from FlyDubai when it comes to AI visibility. Read all about Emirates vs FlyDubai and the battle for AI mentions. Examining a case study of successful AI-driven SEO strategies can help validate the effectiveness of these tools in real-world scenarios.

Publishing “about me” content in both languages covers all bases. The AI tools may default to English for a more accurate interpretation. But you’re still showing your positioning as a trusted source of information in Arabic and fulfilling the needs of the end-users - your customers.

The future of browsing LLMs in Arabic and enjoying their capabilities to the maximum (like you would in English) is looking bright. Hundreds of thousands of people can’t be left out of the AI revolution, so companies are working on improving the quality of Arabic AI responses. For now, backing up your online presence with English content could give the main AI tools a leg up when it comes to understanding what you do and sharing it in localised answers. When it comes to workflow efficiency, the speed at which AI can generate and optimise content is a major advantage, allowing businesses to respond quickly to market changes.

We’re still researching other ways to help UAE businesses show up in AI search. How will Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) fare compared to dialect variations as AI language capabilities develop? Are there structured data techniques that will better organise Arabic content for AI interpretation? Will GPTs trained locally outperform global tools? For users, the ease of using AI tools for complex SEO tasks means even those without technical expertise can efficiently manage and optimise their content.

As the relationship between AI and Arabic continues to evolve, at decipher. we’re set on helping your brand appear in LLMs searches (think ChatGPT, Perplexity, and co.) and ensure you don’t miss out on customers, wherever they are searching for you. While AI can automate much of the content creation process, maintaining a human touch is essential to ensure empathy and creativity in your messaging. Creativity remains crucial for producing original and engaging content that resonates with your audience.