Saudi, UAE business sentiment remains resilient as investors recalibrate strategies - HSBC

Saudi and UAE business sentiment holds firm despite disruptions, pursuing growth through recalibrated strategies. Businesses and investors in Saudi Arabia and the UAE are maintaining firm medium-term strategies despite ongoing regional uncertainty, according to an HSBC global business leaders survey (pdf). On the global front, 93% of the surveyed investors plan to increase cross-border trade or investment over the next five years.

GCC confidence in near-term growth is strong, with 98% of respondents in Saudi Arabia and 96% in the UAE seeing global expansion prospects and already reshaping their supply chain strategies to capture them. The global figure sits slightly below that of the GCC countries at 94%, but still indicates that cross-border trade and investment are expected to become more regional.

The disruption opens the door for business repositioning: 95% of respondents In Saudi see the current economic environment as a catalyst to redefine priorities and reassess market exposure, a view shared by 93% in the UAE. These figures exceed the global average of 88%, with 87% of respondents saying they are now more willing than they were five years ago to take calculated risks to grow their businesses.

Regional investments will become mainstream

Regionalization is a main focal point for global decision-makers, with 91% of firms expecting cross-border activity to become more regional over the next five years. Some 33% of respondents expect Saudi to become more important to their economic relationships, while 37% say the same for the UAE.

Why it matters: These figures put Saudi and the UAE ahead of other major markets, including India (26%), ASEAN (24%), and the wider Middle East (23%), in terms of rising strategic importance. That momentum is part of a broader shift, with 89% of businesses increasing capital deployment into high-growth markets.

AI is redefining growth strategies

AI and technology are shaping how investors approach 2026. Half of the surveyed firms now see access to technology and infrastructure just as important as market growth and client demand when planning international strategies, while 49% of investors say greater exposure to AI themes is driving shifts in their portfolios. That shift is also showing up in new market choices, with energy costs and AI infrastructure (51%) now almost on the same level as traditional growth prospects (52%).

Investors see tech driving a wide range of gains over the next three years, led by higher productivity and workforce efficiency (56%), better forecasting and decision-making (48%), and stronger innovation (46%), along with lower operating costs (46%). Looking further ahead, nearly a third expect AI to fundamentally reshape their core business models by 2030.

What’s next?

Digital finance will be on the rise. 90% of decision-makers expect digital finance adoption to accelerate over the next five years, and more than half saying digital assets will become core market infrastructure by 2031. Readiness remains a challenge, with 47% of businesses still not understanding how digital finance will affect them, and fewer than 40% already implemented use cases.

Respondents believe private capital (33%) will exert the greatest influence over global capital allocation by 2035, significantly outranking public markets (20%), a blended model (20%), sovereign and state-backed investors (18%), and governments or regulators (10%).