If you ask Saudi Gen Z today what success looks like, you’ll still hear familiar things. Making their family proud. Earning well. Building something of their own. So no, they haven’t completely thrown out the old rulebook. But they’ve definitely rewritten parts of it quietly, in ways that feel more like intentional edits than rebellion.
Rule 1: Success now includes staying close to who you are
Saudi’s transformation has accelerated, with new brands, industries, stages, and expectations all arriving at once. Young people in the Kingdom now have far more access, visibility, and global exposure than even a few years ago.
What’s interesting is that this hasn’t made Saudi Gen Z want to become less Saudi. If anything, it seems to have made many of them hold onto that identity more deliberately.
58 per cent say they want a balance of culture and modernity. And when you look at what they want to preserve, it’s clear where priorities sit: respect for elders, time with family, showing up for religious and cultural moments, and even 57 per cent who want to preserve Arabic in daily life.
“In Saudi, you’re really connected to your family to a point that they shape your future… Sometimes you have to choose between what they expect and what you want,” says Abdulmalik Ghandoora, Youth Studio Champion at Publicis Groupe KSA.
At the same time, 41 per cent say they feel conflicted between following their personal goals and meeting family expectations. So clearly, this is not simple. They are trying to move forward without feeling like they have to leave too much of themselves behind.
Which makes the role for brands pretty clear: show how ambition and progress can happen while staying connected to identity in the youth you feature, the stories you tell, and the worlds you build.
Rule 2: Success today is about managing real trade-offs
There is still this idea that Gen Z either wants to follow passion and forget stability or just do the bare minimum at work and figure the rest out later. That’s too simplistic.
Saudi Gen Z is a generation that is constantly weighing decisions.
45 per cent say they want a balance between a job that pays well and one they care about. Not one instead of the other. Both in the same life.
And when you look at the trade-offs, it becomes clearer. Making money and enjoying life now is one of the hardest things to balance.
“Success is being so good at something that people come to you for it… but the sacrifice is your time, your social life, even your sleep,” explains Sereen Mufti, Youth Studio Champion at Publicis Groupe KSA, adds, “The sacrifice is time with my family. There are many important moments I’ve missed.”
You can feel the pressure in that. Success is a series of ongoing decisions, and getting those decisions right matters.
Making family proud still comes through as one of the strongest markers of success. Right alongside it is self-growth, followed by independence and financial stability.
So success hasn’t become smaller. If anything, it has become heavier to carry.
The advice for brands? Show the decisions behind what success actually looks like, what gets prioritised, what gets sacrificed, and how Gen Z figures it out along the way.
Rule 3: Success increasingly means having control over your life
A big part of success now seems to come down to control. Not in an abstract sense, but in very real, personal decisions.
50 per cent say freedom means choosing who they marry. 38 per cent say choosing their own career path, even if it is unconventional. Another 38 per cent say freedom from family financial dependence.
Shaikhah Al-Otaibi, Youth Studio Champion at Publicis Groupe KSA, adds, “For me, success is doing what you want, based on your own standards, without feeling like you have to prove anything to anyone.”
There is no single path to success anymore, and with that comes a different kind of pressure. That’s where control starts to matter more.
Interestingly, we see something else when uncertainty enters the picture. When asked what helps them feel stable during difficult times, the answers shift: 28 per cent say family, 27 per cent faith, 23 per cent hobbies that help them relax, and 20 per cent being more careful with money.
Their ambitions are still there. But when things feel intense, what they rely on becomes much more grounded.
For brands, this means enabling choice through flexible plans, customisable services, and experiences that youth can shape around their own priorities, pace, and stage of life.
To sum up, if success for this generation is tied to identity, choice, control, and stability, then brands cannot keep selling a one-size-fits-all version of aspiration.
They have to understand the world young Saudis are actually trying to build. One where progress still feels personal, where ambition does not erase identity, and where success is not just about looking impressive from the outside.
That is a much harder brief. But it is also the real one.
By Sanjana Soman, Business Director, Growth and Innovation, Publicis Groupe Middle East
