The latest report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) highlights the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region’s exemplary performance in digital government services, with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) achieving global leadership in citizen satisfaction. This sixth edition of BCG’s GCC Digital Government Citizen Survey illustrates the growing integration of digital services into daily life across the region, setting new benchmarks for efficiency and accessibility in public service.

BCG’s findings show that GCC countries lead globally in citizen satisfaction with digital government services, reaching a net satisfaction score of 81%. GCC citizens also report using these services 22% more frequently than the global average, reflecting high engagement and a strong commitment from governments to deliver quality digital experiences. Notably, 76% of GCC citizens embrace AI-powered government services driven by virtual assistants and personalized solutions that enhance accessibility and efficiency. Additionally, 42% of GCC respondents expect services to perform at regional and global top-performer standards in 2024, underscoring citizens’ high expectations for public service quality.

“The citizens of the GCC are increasingly holding their governments to the same standards as major tech players, expecting rapid, innovative solutions that meet their needs efficiently and seamlessly,” said Rami Mourtada, Partner & Director of Digital Transformation, BCG. “GCC governments are delivering on these expectations by embracing a digital-first approach and moving at the pace with global emerging tech trends. With the transformative potential of Generative AI ahead, sustained investment and innovation will be crucial to maintaining their leadership in government services and meeting the evolving demands of the digital age. “

GCC Leads in AI Trust and Digital Satisfaction, Advancing GenAI-Driven Public Services

As global interest in GenAI expands, GCC emerges as a leader. As found in the report, citizens in the GCC exhibited a net trust of 71%, forty-nine percentage points higher than the global average, for their government use of AI in digital services. This leading level of trust has also been matched with substantial investments in AI and digital infrastructure across the region led by public initiatives. Leading this charge, Saudi Arabia’s National Strategy for Data and AI targets economic growth with a projected contribution of SAR500 billion ($133.3 billion) to GDP by 2030.  Similarly, Qatar is driving digital transformation through strategic collaborations with Qatar University and tech providers to upskill ICT professionals in AI, 5G, and cloud computing. Rounding out these advances the UAE’s Technology Innovation Institute has positioned itself as an AI leader by developing the open-source Falcon LLM, demonstrating the region’s technology capabilities in generative AI. These coordinated efforts across GCC combine public trust with strategic investments and technological advancement in AI.

With some of the highest global rates of GenAI usage, GCC citizens demonstrate a solid readiness to adopt AI-driven solutions in public services. Extensive investments by the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar have helped maintain high levels of satisfaction with digital services, which fosters confidence in government use of AI. This foundation of trust and strategic investment supports the GCC’s leading position in citizen satisfaction and presents an opportunity for the region to shape next-generation digital government services. As countries worldwide explore GenAI integration, the GCC stands poised to set new standards in AI-powered public service that adapts to evolving citizen needs.

“The GCC stands at a real and unprecedented opportunity,” said Dr. Lars Littig, Managing Director & Partner, BCG, and EMESA Leader of BCG’s Center for Digital Government. “Achieving a cohesive, government-wide digital evolution requires a strategic vision, solid governance, and effective coordination within and outside the public sector. In the GCC, governments are advancing data governance and responsible AI practices to build citizen trust, treating data as a national resource that fuels smarter policy decisions.”

Strategic Recommendations for GCC Governments

To sustain their digital transformation momentum and meet rising citizen expectations, BCG’s report outlines four strategic pillars to guide GCC governments toward enhanced digital services and effective AI integration:

1. Innovate Continuously– GCC governments should remain agile in developing new digital features and services to meet evolving citizen needs of technological advancements and seamless digital-first interactions.

2. Prioritize Usability– Addressing usability challenges and ensuring convenient, efficient touchpoints will maximize accessibility and satisfaction across digital services and foster a more inclusive digital ecosystem.

3. Accelerate AI and GenAI Adoption- Accelerate AI and GenAI Adoption – Deploy targeted AI applications in high-impact cases where citizens feel most comfortable, maximizing service quality and citizen engagement.

4. Focus on Trust-Building– Focus on Trust-Building – Establish robust data governance frameworks prioritizing privacy, security, and transparency in digital and AI-enabled services.

This approach addresses citizen concerns and positions GCC nations as leaders in responsible AI adoption, creating a balanced and forward-looking framework for digital governance.

The region’s success in digital government transformation highlights its commitment to delivering high-quality, accessible, and innovative public services. As GCC governments continue investing in digital infrastructure, they address current expectations and lay the foundation for sustained leadership in the global digital landscape.

UAE- based Phygrid, the Store Digitalization Standard deployed by large retailers in over 50 countries has announced a strategic partnership with VoiceComm, a distributor of mobile device accessories and Microsoft. This collaboration will introduce cutting-edge retail technology solutions to the U.S. market and support over 52,000 retail locations nationwide, embodying the principle of ‘saving the day for customers, saving the sale for the retailer’.

As the retail landscape evolves, in-store shopping is becoming more digital, with retailers integrating advanced tools like AI-driven endless aisles, mobile payments, virtual queuing, and personalized recommendations. This shift is fueled by consumer demand for convenience, seamless online-offline experiences, as well as the need for faster, more efficient service.

The UAE, a leader in retail innovation, has been at the forefront of this digital transformation with interactive digital kiosks and smart fitting rooms to AI-powered customer service solutions. These advancements have set a global benchmark, demonstrating how digitalization is shaping the future of shopping. As U.S. retailers aim to stay competitive, adopting these technologies will be key to meeting the expectations of today’s tech-savvy consumers.

Leveraging Phygrid’s global success and utilizing Microsoft’s Azure cloud technology, VoiceComm will offer retailers access to solutions that drive substantial return on investment through these benefits:

• Increased Revenue: Drive online sales from in-store with AI-powered endless aisle technology.
• Enhanced Customer Experience: Reduce wait times with virtual queuing and self-service solutions.
• Operational Efficiency: Streamline operations through digital staff management and smart store systems.
• Data-Driven Decision Making: Optimize store performance with deep behavior analytics.

Andreas Hassellöf, CEO of Phygrid, stated, “Thanks to our Microsoft Azure technology collaboration, our technology has transformed retail operations across the globe and we’re excited to now team up with VoiceComm to bring our solutions to the U.S. market. We believe that American retailers are primed to benefit from the seamless integration of online and offline experiences that Phygrid offers. This collaboration represents a significant step in our mission to redefine the future of retail.”

While the partnership focuses on the U.S. market, PhyGrid’s presence in the UAE is also expanding rapidly, with the UAE emerging as a regional leader in retail digitalization. The company’s platform, already used by retailers in the Middle East, offers solutions that align with the UAE’s smart city vision and growing demand for seamless, data-driven customer experiences in retail.

Ryan Weiss, CEO of VoiceComm, added,“In our forward-looking efforts to bring innovation to our customers, we evaluated many vendors for retail solutions, but it became clear that Phygrid is exactly what we were looking for. They focus so much on the strategy, art and science that goes into the customer journey that it makes sense why Microsoft recommends Phygrid to their customers.”

Keith Mercier, Vice President of Retail & Consumer Goods Industries, Microsoft, also noted, “The pace and scale of change happening in the retail industry is unlike anything seen before. The past decade has also seen an explosion of data that retailers are looking to leverage to better serve their customers and their business. At Microsoft, our goal is to empower the retail industry and help them unlock the value of that data through the Microsoft Cloud. With continuous innovation, security, and strong partnerships we can create unique tools and insights our customers need to thrive in today’s dynamic market.”

Exclusive interview with Mr. Raphaël Peyret, Director of Product Management — Cloud Security, BitDefender

What is Bitdefender’s main objective at GITEX this year?  

GITEX is a great opportunity to meet not only our end customers but also partners. We are a channel company and we sell exclusively through partners. Hence, it’s great to have partners from all over the region all over the world come to us so that we can connect again in person. We are also presenting some of our newer products and offerings. For example, this year we launched a new cloud security offering. Talking about some of our innovations in risk management, we announced something called PHASR recently. So those are going to be some big, big things that we hope to spread the word about.

As a cybersecurity company, how Bitdefender keep itself ahead of the competition?

Every company in the space has its own angle on this. And for us, our angle is its technology. We’re a technology company at heart, our founder, founded Bitdefender 23 years ago. He’s a university professor, and we have 50% of our teams working on R&D. We are not a marketing company. We are a technology company and that comes across in our products, where technically speaking we are really, really good. We have got people doing reverse engineering of malware, working with the FBI, with INTERPOL, as well as building the B2B products that you will see here. Under the hood, there’s a ton of work on core technology.

Right now, a lot of companies are moving toward having cloud security. What is Bitdefender doing in this sector/market?

At Bitdefender, we recognize that while the cloud requires a tailored approach, it cannot be treated as entirely separate from other environments. Attackers won’t stop at the cloud’s edge, so isolated approaches only create exploitable silos. That’s why our cloud security platform and cloud-native application protection are integrated into our broader security framework. Our capabilities correlate data and responses across all environments—cloud, endpoints, email, mobile, or IoT. This unified approach ensures comprehensive threat prevention, detection, and response, following attackers wherever they move.

How are you utilizing AI and machine learning in enhancing your threat detection capabilities?

We often get asked about AI and machine learning, especially now, but for our technical teams, it’s nothing new—it’s like discussing computing itself. Bitdefender has been leveraging machine learning on endpoints for over a decade. Instead of just claiming “we have AI,” we deploy a vast range of models fine-tuned for different security needs, including machine learning, heuristics-based, and generative models. These aren’t just buzzwords; each model serves a specific security purpose, optimized through rigorous R&D. In 2017, a new ransomware was blocked by a 2014 model—demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach. Moreover, every device with our protection uses its own customized AI model, meaning we effectively deploy millions of unique models tailored to individual devices.

Considering that hackers are aware of cybersecurity measures from companies like Bitdefender, are they constantly innovating new tactics to bypass these defenses?

Hackers driven by financial gain often target more vulnerable systems because they offer easier access with lower investment. If defenses are strong enough to make hacking unprofitable, attackers tend to move on. Despite this, hackers continue to innovate, particularly in malware and ransomware. For instance, they increasingly use harder-to-reverse-engineer languages like Rust to slow down security teams’ efforts to create decryptors. They also explore advanced cryptography, anticipating quantum computing’s potential to break traditional security methods. This constant evolution creates a cat-and-mouse dynamic; the goal remains to make attacks so costly that cybercriminals are deterred.

Do you also consider the perspective and strategies of hackers when developing your security measures?

Of course and in fact the services that we offer include penetration testing and red teaming. Red teaming is the one that’s really the closest to the hacker mindset. Because organizations will come and say. “Here are our crown jewels. Here’s the safe. Here are the rules of the game. You’re not allowed to, beat my CEO up. Everything else is on the table. Break in and tell me how you did it.” And so for that, we basically have the white-hat hackers, the good hackers. They hack you so that you know how another hacker would do it and that you can block. We do that. And of course, it’s important not to separate from the hacker mindset for doing cybersecurity properly. Because otherwise, you’re blind to where the risks actually are.