In a year defined by geopolitical recalibration, fragmented supply chains, and accelerating AI risk, one market is quietly setting the pace. According to the newly released KPMG UAE Tech Report 2026: Scale, Confidence and Acceleration, UAE organisations are outpacing their global counterparts on nearly every measure of how technology strategy is being redesigned for a more uncertain world.
The findings, drawn from responses by senior technology leaders across government, financial services, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, and technology, paint a clear picture: UAE leaders are not debating how to respond to the new global environment. They are already acting on it.
The Numbers Behind the Shift
The data is striking.
54% of UAE organisations plan to hire more onshore technology talent over the next 12 months, and the same share intend to enhance data sovereignty audits across their partner ecosystems. Both figures are nearly double the global average of 36%.
The recalibration runs across the entire technology supply chain. 49% of UAE organisations plan to reduce reliance on enterprise software licenses by adopting open-source alternatives, compared with just 31% globally. 43% intend to apply stricter geographic scrutiny to their cybersecurity partners and suppliers, ahead of the global average of 35%. And 41% plan to reduce their technology exposure to adversarial countries altogether, a clear signal that resilience, operational continuity, and trusted digital sovereignty have moved from boardroom talking points to active strategy.
A Leadership Mindset, Not a Compliance Exercise
What sets the UAE apart is not the action itself, but the intent behind it. This is not a market reacting to risk. It is a market converting volatility into competitive advantage.
“UAE organisations understand that in a more complex geopolitical environment, how you build your technology ecosystem matters as much as what you build. Most markets are still debating how to respond to a more fragmented world. What we see in the UAE is organisations that have already decided and are acting on it. The move toward onshore talent, data sovereignty, and tighter supply chain scrutiny reflects a leadership approach that treats resilience and innovation as two sides of the same strategy.”
— Robert Ptaszynski, Partner and Head of Technology, KPMG Middle East
That recalibration is grounded in already-strong foundations. 90% of UAE organisations rank in the top two resilience tiers globally, and 66% report optimised cybersecurity capabilities, significantly ahead of the global benchmark of 51%.
Governance as Competitive Asset
Equally noteworthy is the maturity of UAE leaders’ governance priorities. 34% rank AI transparency among their top forward-looking concerns, the highest proportion of any market in the world. 32% flag intellectual property exposure through open-source use as a current risk.
These are not the questions of a market still building digital infrastructure. They are the questions of a market that has built it, secured it, and is now shaping how it will compete on it.
In other words: for UAE leaders, governance is no longer a compliance obligation. It is a strategic asset.
Why This Matters for Global Leadership
The KPMG UAE Tech Report 2026 captures a market at an inflection point, and a leadership cohort that has identified the inflection clearly. The world is moving toward a more fragmented technology landscape. Talent is being repatriated. Supply chains are being shortened. Data is being localised. And AI governance is moving from technical concern to board-level priority.
UAE leaders are not catching up to that shift. They are defining what it looks like.
For business leaders watching from London, New York, Singapore, or Riyadh, the report’s message is clear: the operating model of the next decade is not being written in the world’s traditional capitals. It is being written by leaders who understand that, in a volatile world, the companies that thrive will be the ones that build resilience and innovation as a single, integrated strategy.
In the UAE, that work is already underway.
Sources: KPMG UAE Tech Report 2026: Scale, Confidence and Acceleration; KPMG Middle East.