For the Hubbis Middle East Private Wealth Management – Outlook 2026, David Smylie, Group Head at GSB Private, says the Middle East wealth landscape is being reshaped by rapid demographic change, deeper pools of entrepreneurial wealth, and sustained regulatory reform led by the DIFC and ADGM. As next-generation GCC nationals take greater control of decision-making and the UAE continues to attract global talent, demand is shifting towards more tailored, cross-border and outcome-oriented advice. Joseph Jawad, Senior Partner, adds that AI and large language models are moving from novelty to infrastructure – strengthening adviser productivity, improving consistency and auditability, and placing data quality at the centre of competitive advantage. Together, they argue that while technology will increasingly power the technical engine of wealth management, human judgement, empathy and trust will remain the defining differentiators.
How do you see the private wealth landscape in the Middle East continuing to develop in 2026, which types of clients are driving the strongest interest in the region, and how do you expect the broader wealth ecosystem — advisers, platforms, structures and providers — to evolve in response?
Author: David Smylie – Group Head of GSB Private
I have been working within the finance industry in Dubai for almost a decade, and over this time have seen the wealth ecosystem shift hugely over this period. The driver of this shift has undoubtedly been the demographic changes combined with regulatory reform, the latter of which has given much greater confidence and credibility to the region.
Taking demographics, we’re now seeing the next generation of local GCC nationals have more influence and control over wealth and decision making. Their tech savviness and more global outlook demand a higher standard of advice and investment solution, and so the market has had to adapt quickly to this. We have also seen a growing ecosystem of entrepreneurs in the region, as the UAE in particular becomes a hub for innovation. Visa reforms make it easier, quicker and cheaper to put down real business and personal roots in the region, which contributes hugely. Finally, the UAE used to be a ‘hardship’ posting for expats in a way that seems so alien now. Top quality expat talent continues to flood into the region at a staggering rate, and with it, a greater demand for more cross-border solutions and mobility-friendly structures.
This change, and diversification in demographics, is driving demand for more tailored, flexible, and outcome-oriented wealth solutions rather than a one-size-fits-all model that has plagued the market in the past. Moving on to regulatory reform, this has had a significant impact on the changing wealth landscape. Driven by the DIFC and ADGM, governments across the GCC are enhancing the attractiveness of their wealth ecosystems through progressive regulation, including family office frameworks, cross-border facilitators and digital asset regulation. The healthy competition we now see between the DIFC and ADGM continues to drive standards higher year on year, and the UAE in particular, is starting to be taken more seriously as home to key global financial centers in a way it never was in the past. This is very much still a work in progress and there is a fair bit still to go before the Dubai and Abu Dhabi are mentioned in the same breadth as New York, Geneva and Singapore. However, underestimate the UAE at your peril, as the vision and aspiration to be at the top will continue to be the main driver of this region going forward.
Finally, there have been great enhancements in the evolution of platforms, structures and providers. Going back 20 years, the options were hugely limited, and clients were shoehorned into those limited and often unsuitable options because simply nothing better existed. With the influx of greater advisory talent, clearer process and better quality platforms, clients now have access to a much greater ecosystem to choose and be advised from. What the region does still need to tackle is the continued overreliance on product selling as opposed to advice led business. Proper financial planning and good quality advice, rooted around suitability of solution, needs to be at the forefront of everything we do as Wealth Managers. The region still has some work to do here. The good thing is the market is much wiser now to those who have operated more unscrupulously in the past, and those firms who truly value their clients and the relationships that can be built off good quality advice are now starting to shine through.
How will your firm leverage digital tools, AI and data intelligence in 2026 to strengthen advisor productivity and scale high-touch private wealth services?
Author: Joseph Jawad – Senior Partner of GSB Private
In just a few years, large language models have shifted from novelty to infrastructure. Our use of them, both personally and professionally, is becoming increasingly sophisticated, to the point that LLM queries have replaced a material amount of traditional online search. It is no surprise that Google continues to invest heavily in Gemini, or that AI is now embedded in so many of the tools we use daily.
As a result, the way we work is changing. Over the years, I have learned that while professional qualifications and continuing development are essential components of my role as an adviser to wealthy families, the majority of client interactions are not especially technical. They place far greater weight on judgement, empathy and context than on technical prowess alone. As this shift continues, advisers will double down on human interaction, while increasingly outsourcing technical power to digital tools operating quietly in the background.
I see this trend accelerating over the coming years. Clients will not only expect advisers to use AI as part of their process, they will increasingly question those who choose not to. It is entirely reasonable for a client to ask, “Are you telling me you know better, and more, than an AI, and that you can do a better job for me without it?” In that environment, opting out of AI altogether becomes harder to justify.
Firms that embrace digital tools powered by AI stand to benefit enormously. Used well, these tools can process vast amounts of data, summarise complexity without losing structure, spot patterns humans might miss, act as a consistent and tireless second pair of eyes, and create greater consistency and auditability across advice processes.
That said, AI-enhanced systems will only ever be as good as the data feeding them. Firms with fragmented, inconsistent or under-utilised client data will fall behind, particularly where so-called soft data is concerned. Data quality will become the real competitive edge. High-quality advice at scale will not be driven by better models alone, but by better data discipline. The firms that succeed will be those that systematise life events, preferences, family dynamics, liquidity constraints and governance structures in a way that technology can meaningfully use.
Looking further ahead, I see a future in which AI tools are trained on how wealth management businesses actually advise clients and manage capital. If firms do a sufficiently good job of gathering both hard and soft data, we are not far from a world where LLMs draft personalised investment recommendations, drawing on investment committee materials that are themselves largely AI-generated, and where implementation is handled by automated systems. Much like modern pilots, advisers will focus on specific moments that require judgement and intervention. Pilots did not disappear with the advent of autopilot systems. They evolved, with accountability remaining human even where execution is automated.
Taken further still, these systems will respond dynamically to events as they happen, from interest rate changes and tax reforms to client-specific milestones. Just as many of us trust Waze to route us more efficiently than a person most of the time, reliance on such systems in wealth management will grow. This will support broader use of consolidated reporting, allow advisers to serve more clients, and lead to greater client sophistication as clients themselves adopt AI tools.
Ultimately, however, digital tools cannot replace our fundamental need for human connection. AI cannot build meaningful relationships, laugh over shared experience, or genuinely commiserate over adversity. For the foreseeable future, the adviser is safe from being replaced, but the nature of advising will evolve to the point of being barely recognisable to today’s cohort.
