15 October 2026
- More than 500 leaders and
experts, including 78 top officials from government and
international organizations and more than 150 CEOs and
chairs, gathered in Dubai for the inaugural Annual Meeting
of Global Future Leaders. - Key outputs include Future
20, the Global Agentic AI Award and Innovation Challenge,
the Leadership Commitment Framework, Global Youth Pulse
insights, and new research on AI, resilient growth and
data-centre infrastructure. - World Economic Forum
Fellows were designated to shape strategic priorities and
carry the work forward beyond Dubai, with Opportunity Lab
discussions driving progress.
More than 500
leaders and experts concluded today the inaugural Annual
Meeting of Global Future Leaders in Dubai.
Held by the
World Economic Forum in collaboration with the Government of
the United Arab Emirates, the three-day meeting convened
participants from across generations, regions and sectors,
including 78 top officials from government and international
organizations and more than 150 CEOs and chairs.
As
technological, demographic and geopolitical shifts reshape
economies and societies, the meeting focused on how leaders
can identify opportunity early and build resilience for
futures that cannot be predicted with certainty.
Participants also explored how scientific advances,
leadership, human agency, climate and nature are reshaping
opportunity and the capabilities needed to navigate an
increasingly complex world.
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“The future should not
be governed by yesterday’s assumptions,” said Alois
Zwinggi, President and CEO, World Economic Forum, and
Principal Chairman of the Annual Meeting of Global Future
Leaders. “Over the course of the meeting, leaders tested
ideas, launched initiatives and identified ways to keep the
work moving beyond Dubai. That is how dialogue becomes
action, helping create new opportunities and build
resilience for the years ahead.”
“Today we move
from discussing the future to shaping it with you,” said
His Excellency Mohammad Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet
Affairs of the United Arab Emirates and Principal Chairman
of the Annual Meeting of Global Future Leaders. “We want
partnerships that turn into action, opportunities that turn
into achievement, and impact that reaches generations to
come.”
Opportunity, resilience and the future of
economic growth
The meeting piloted
Opportunity Labs, collaborative,
action-oriented sessions that worked backwards from a better
future to explore how today’s challenges could be
successfully addressed over the next 10 years.
“We
remain optimistic about the future, even in difficult and
challenging times,” said Ohood Bint Khalfan Al Roumi,
Minister of State for Government Development and the Future
of the United Arab Emirates, and Co-Chair of the Annual
Meeting of Global Future Leaders 2026. “Our optimism is a
commitment to keep finding a way forward. It gives us the
courage to begin, the humility to learn as we go and the
determination to change course when needed.”
During
the Opportunity Labs, participants explored how AI can
advance productivity and create better jobs, and how
resilience can be strengthened at scale. They also
considered tools for shared accountability, including a
potential resilience index to measure progress and help
direct capital towards climate adaptation.
Insights
from the labs will inform the forthcoming Future Leaders
Outlook, a synthesis of participant perspectives
highlighting the opportunities and capabilities likely to
shape the decade ahead.
“For the future to really
work for people, we need to build around their actual lives
and involve them in designing and building the technology
itself,” said Suhani Jalota, Founder and Chief Executive
Officer, Myna Mahila Foundation, India, and Young Global
Leader. “For us to create lasting change and impact, we
really need to involve the people who are
overlooked.”
The WEF, the UAE Government and the
Dubai Future Foundation also expressed their intention to
establish the Centre for Global
Opportunities, focused on expanding access to
opportunity for current and future generations of
leaders.
Discussions also drew on findings from the
WEF’s Youth
Pulse 2026, which captures the perspectives of
nearly 4,600 young people across 144 countries and
territories on economic, political, technological, social
and environmental issues.
The WEF also published The
Impact Economy: Turning Disclosure into Demand,
exploring how measurable social outcomes can become
economically actionable, as only 15% of Sustainable
Development Goal (SDG) targets with sufficient data remain
on track. Using healthcare as a test case, it identifies
regulatory, commercial, financial and collaborative pathways
to turn impact into demand.
Ahead of the 2026 UN Water
Conference in Abu Dhabi, the Centre for Nature and Climate
and the UpLink Aquapreneurs Initiative convened water
innovators and Young Global Leaders to identify priorities
for scaling water solutions. The meeting also provided the
setting for the announcement of a new two-year partnership
between the WEF and the Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative
to accelerate practical solutions to water
scarcity.
Discussions on trade and economics
highlighted how supply shocks and disruptions are testing
economic policy-making, underscoring the need for more
adaptive approaches at a time of rising government borrowing
costs and heightened uncertainty.
“We want to lower
the risks for businesses so they are more resilient when
external shocks come,” said Milojko Spajić, Prime
Minister of Montenegro and Co-Chair of the Annual Meeting of
Global Future Leaders 2026. “You need to lower fixed costs
so they can better deal with whatever the situation
brings.”
“The future is something we actively
design,” said Khalfan Belhoul, Chief Executive Officer,
Dubai Future Foundation, and Co-Chair of the Annual Meeting
of Global Future Leaders 2026. “Foresight helps us
understand change, but it is action that turns opportunities
into reality.”
Technology, science and human
possibility
During the meeting, participants explored
how AI and scientific discovery could expand human
capabilities, accelerate innovation, and create economic and
societal value, while highlighting the need for trusted
governance, accountability, human judgment and
infrastructure to support broader
adoption.
Discussions on agentic AI emphasized that
deployment should improve people’s quality of life, with
safeguards and responsible oversight essential to
maintaining trust.
“The challenge is that it is
extremely easy for us to lose trust, but very hard for us to
gain trust when it comes to agentic AI systems,” said His
Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for
Artificial Intelligence of the United Arab Emirates. “If
you are able to improve people’s quality of life by
deploying that agent, then you are moving in the right
direction. If you have productivity gains but you’re
harming people, it does not matter.”
The UAE
Government and the Global
Shapers Community launched the Global
Agentic AI Award and Innovation Challenge, a
year-long initiative inviting all 500 Global Shapers hubs to
use agentic AI to address local community challenges. The
initiative will award $1 million annually over five years,
with winners recognized at the Annual Meeting of Global
Future Leaders 2027.
The Centre for Intelligent Future
and Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence
(MBZUAI) also expanded access to AI for All, a programme
equipping young leaders in 100 cities with practical AI
skills, from generative and agentic AI to responsible
governance, prioritizing regions with limited access to AI
training.
“This is the moment where we stop looking
at all the problems and decide to look at the opportunities,
and we decide to do something about it,” said Mariam
Nourya Koné, Global Shaper, Abidjan Hub, Côte d’Ivoire.
“And when we start, eventually people
follow.”
Participants examined how agentic AI can
expand human capability while preserving accountability and
trust; how humanoid robots can become effective
collaborators; and how emerging sensing technologies can
unlock applications across health, climate, retail, commerce
and robotics.
“What defines this moment is
uncertainty. It makes it both difficult to predict, but also
very exciting from a technology perspective,” said Fadel
Adib, Professor and Entrepreneur, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and Co-Chair of the Annual Meeting of Global
Future Leaders 2026. “It also creates a unique opportunity
for leaders and institutions to leapfrog and make a
change.”
Unlocking
Value: AI for Resilient Growth in MENA
estimates that AI could unlock more than $1 trillion in
economic and sustainability value across the region by 2030.
It identifies gaps between AI’s perceived potential and
implementation, and pathways for finance, government, energy
and cross-sector collaboration to turn adoption into
sustainable growth.
Powering
AI at Scale: Optimizing Hyperscale Data Centre
Infrastructure in MENA examines the
infrastructure needed for AI growth, finding that new data
centres in the region could connect to the grid within two
to five years versus more than a decade in mature markets.
It highlights the need for integrated planning, smarter
design and updated regulation to manage rising energy and
water demands sustainably.
The WEF also published the
Next-Generation
Computing Policy Readiness Framework, a
practical tool to help policy-makers assess infrastructure,
talent, sovereignty and cybersecurity readiness, and Cybersecurity’s
Strategic Inflection Point: A Senior Leadership Agenda for
2027, highlighting cybersecurity’s critical
role in economic resilience and global stability and calling
for stronger governance, investment and coordinated
action.
Leadership for the next generation
The
Annual Meeting of Global Future Leaders convened members and
alumni of the WEF’s Young
Global Leaders community, alongside Global
Shapers and Social
Innovators, and leaders from government,
business, academia, science, technology and civil society,
connecting next-generation voices with established global
leadership.
The meeting also launched the Leadership
Commitment Framework, developed by the Global
Future Council on Leadership and the Forum
of Young Global Leaders. The self-assessment
tool is designed to help leaders assess whether their
approach to leadership is suited to the challenges of an
increasingly complex world.
Future
20 spotlighted 20 young leaders from the Global
Shapers Network driving new approaches to technology,
economic growth, resilience, leadership and
sustainability.
The WEF also advanced the
Global Alliance for Future Generations,
bringing together companies and young leaders to strengthen
economic opportunities as AI transforms entry-level jobs.
UAE-based Apparel Group has joined the Alliance, which
already brings together more than 20 companies, expanding
its engagement in the region.
Leadership discussions
included the Women Leading the Future, with senior UAE
public figures taking part. Public sessions examined how
leaders can adapt to a rapidly changing generation already
adapting and embed fairness in hiring, promotion and
technologies shaping the future of work.
The meeting
closed with a call to shape the future through collective
action. The Global Shapers Community and Young Global
Leaders will carry forward its outcomes, turning insights
from Dubai into collaboration and action in communities
worldwide.
About the Annual Meeting of Global
Future Leaders 2026
To strengthen
intergenerational dialogue and practical collaboration on
issues shaping the future, the World Economic Forum will
bring together more than 500 leaders and experts in Dubai,
United Arab Emirates, on 13–15 October 2026 for the
inaugural Annual Meeting of Global Future
Leaders.
