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Anup Oommen
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Personas to purchase: We Are Social reveals 5 behavioural shifts in UAE, Saudi Arabia

Anup Oommen
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From the We Are Social reports, five principles stand out, reflecting how consumer expectations, discovery, decision-making and commerce continue to evolve in some of the world’s most digitally advanced markets.

Photo used for illustrative purposes. Credit: Berke Citak We Are SocialPhoto used for illustrative purposes. Credit: Berke Citak

We Are Social, a socially-led creative agency and a global leader in media, social and consumer intelligence, released the 2026 UAE and Saudi Arabia editions of its Global Digital Reports at an event titled Speed, Spend and Social held at the Asia Asia The Palm restaurant in Dubai on 22 January 2026.

Published as part of We Are Social’s long-running annual research programme, the Global Digital Reports have been released every year since 2011 and are designed to be free and openly accessible.

The reports provide a consistent, longitudinal view of how digital behaviours evolve over time, offering insight into cultural, social, and commercial shifts across markets rather than a one-off snapshot.


The 2026 UAE and Saudi Arabia reports, conducted in partnership with Meltwater, bring to light a wide range of trends shaping digital life across one of the most socially-savvy regions in the world.

Of these, five principles stand out as particularly significant for 2026, reflecting how consumer expectations, discovery, decision-making and commerce continue to evolve in some of the world’s most digitally advanced markets.

Five principles shaping the year ahead revealed at the We Are Social event

1. The Persona Paradox
Audiences can no longer be understood through static demographics alone. Digital identities are more fluid than ever, with individuals moving between platforms (7.7 monthly in the UAE & 8.7 in KSA), mindsets, and motivations throughout the day. This means brands needs to respond to context and intent rather than relying on broad audience labels.

The brand and marketing industry need to stop marketing to “demographics” as if they are static labels. The 2026 data reveals a Persona Paradox where the individual has been replaced by a fluid collection of digital identities that shift mindsets depending on the time of day and the platform they occupy. The industry can no longer market to a single person because that person is now three or four different people depending on the hour.

  • The identity overflow: In Saudi Arabia, the report highlights 6 million social identities for a population of 34.7 million. In the UAE, it’s 12.5 million identities for 11.4 million people.
  • Platform agility: Audiences are highly fluid, switching between an average of 7 social platforms monthly in the UAE and 7.7 in Saudi Arabia. The global average is around 6.5 platforms monthly.
  • Mindset switching: A Saudi user spends approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes a day on TikTok for entertainment but pivots to LinkedIn for just 6 minutes of professional utility.

The action for brands: Stop broadcasting a single brand message. Contextualise. Brands aren’t targeting a “30-year-old male”; they are targeting a “discovery-mode shopper” at 7pm and a “utility-mode professional” at 9am. If your creative doesn’t pivot with their persona, you become invisible noise.

2. Chat as the cultural operating system

Messaging platforms sit at the centre of digital life in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with more than 80 per cent of the population being active on Whatsapp. Chat has become a primary environment for communication, utility, and trust, reshaping how brands engage consumers beyond traditional publishing and broadcast models.

Audiences have moved from a “web-first” to a “chat-first” economy. In the Middle East, the internet is not a collection of destinations; it is an always-on, high-speed conversation.

  • The number 1 most used platform in the region is not Snapchat or TikTok. It’s WhatsApp: used by more than 80 per cent of people.
  • And when we actually ask people what’s their favorite platform. Once again, WhatsApp is #1
  • And when we look beyond Whatsapp and include Messenger, WeChat, Telegram, Line: we can see that how messaging is embedded in people daily lives: 98.5 per cent of UAE users and 96.5 per cent of Saudi users engage with messaging apps every single month.

The action for brands: What this means for brands: Winning on social means we need to do more than just pushing content. Brands need to start “mastering conversations”. If brands don’t have a presence inside the chat ecosystem, they are missing the most intimate storefront in the region.

3. Social as the search engine of truth

Brand discovery and validation increasingly happen within social platforms. Nearly half of UAE users (48.1 per cent) and a massive 60 per cent of Saudi users now use social networks as their primary tool for researching brands and products.

Consumers across both markets are turning to feeds, creators, and communities to research products and services, positioning social as a critical layer in the consideration and decision-making process.

Traditional brand authority is being decentralised. In this region, “search” is no longer just about a Google query; it is a community vetting process. If brands aren’t being validated in the feed, they don’t exist in the consideration set.

  • Discovery in the feed: Nearly half of UAE users (48.1 per cent) and a massive 60 per cent of Saudi users now use social networks as their primary tool for researching brands and products.
  • The community trust layer: 7 per cent of UAE users and 19.3 per cent of Saudi users complete purchases based specifically on influencer recommendations.
  • The storefront shift: For Gen Z in MENA, social commerce is nearly a $10 billion economy driven by creator-led content.

The action for brands: Treat social presence as a live storefront. Brands’ social feed are now more influential than their homepage because it is where 60 per cent of your market goes to find the truth about the brands.

4. AI as the inspiration gatekeeper

AI tools are today a key filter for inspiration and discovery. ChatGPT rose to being the 6th most visited website in the UAE, with 87.7 per cent of AI web referrals traffic coming from OpenAI’s LLM.

Rather than relying solely on conventional search, consumers are using AI to explore ideas and make sense of choices, increasing the importance of culturally relevant, useful, and creatively distinctive content.

Consumers are no longer just using it for tasks; they are using it to bypass traditional search.

  • LLM dominance: ChatGPT is the 6th most visited website in the UAE after the usual suspects such as Google. It accounts for nearly 90 per cent of AI web referrals in the region (76 per cent in the UAE and 89.08 per cent in Saudi Arabia). The global average is 80 per cent.
  • Rapid adoption: 7 per cent of UAE internet and 31.4 per cent of Saudi users are now engaging with ChatGPT every month. UAE ranks #4 when it comes to use of ChatGPT worldwide.
  • The inspiration gap: “Finding new ideas and inspiration” is the #4 reason people use the internet in the UAE (4 per cent) and Saudi Arabia (47 per cent).

The action for brands: Optimise for inspiration, not just keywords. AI gatekeepers prioritise social relevance and utility. If your content doesn’t provide genuine inspiration, the AI filter will simply make your brand invisible to the user’s journey.

5. The speed of spend

With one of the fastest mobile connections in the world, audiences in the UAE and Saudi Arabia have little tolerance for friction. Seamless experiences, speed to value, and reduced barriers to purchase now play a decisive role in whether intent converts into action.

When speed is absolute, the final step of the journey is where brands are won or lost.

  • Hyper-speed expectations: The UAE’s median mobile download speed is 42 Mbps — a 54.2 per cent jump in one year.
  • Mobile-first wallets: 4 per cent of the UAE’s $7.5 billion e-commerce spend happens via mobile phones.
  • The frictionless mandate: Free Delivery is the #1 driver for completing a purchase across the region (5 per cent UAE / 46.7 per cent KSA).

The action for brands: Audit “time to value”. In a 614 Mbps world, every extra second of friction is an exit ramp. If mobile checkout takes more than three taps, brands aren’t just slow — they are becoming disconnected from a consumer who has no reason to wait.

Together, these principles reflect the maturity of the UAE and Saudi Arabia as digitally advanced markets, where culture, technology and commerce are deeply intertwined, and where brands must balance speed, relevance and utility to remain competitive.

Brands must realise that technology has become a commodity. In 2026, mastering culture is the difference between winning and being ignored. Success here isn’t about having the best tech, it’s about having agility.

  • Speed offers brands ability to react to the moment.
  • Spend offers the result of being genuinely useful.
  • Social is where a brand’s personality actually lives.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia are no longer markets waiting for transformation; they are markets defining it. The data shows us a region that is always online and always moving.

The real question is: as marketers, are we leading that momentum, or are we still just trying to keep up?

Tags:adoptionAIAkanksha Goelannual research programmeArtificial IntelligenceAurelien Fonteneaubroadcastchatcommercialcommunityconsumer intelligencecreative agencyculturalcultural operating systemdigital behavioursDiscoveryExperiencesfrictionlessgatekeeperGlobal Digital Reportshabitsidentity overflowinspiration gaplarge language modelsLLMmarket dominancemarketsmediaMeltwatermindsetsmobile firstoutcomespersona paradoxplatform agilityprinciplesSaudi ArabiaSearch EngineSocialsocial media agencysocially led creative agencyspeedspendstorefront shifttrusttruthUAEutilitywalletsWe Are Social
the authorAnup Oommen
Anup Oommen is the Editor of Campaign Middle East at Motivate Media Group, a well-reputed moderator, and a multiple award-winning journalist with more than 15 years of experience at some of the most reputable and credible global news organisations, including Reuters, CNN, and Motivate Media Group. As the Editor of Campaign Middle East, Anup heads market-leading coverage of advertising, media, marketing, PR, events and experiential, digital, the wider creative industries, and more, through the brand’s digital, print, events, directories, podcast and video verticals. As such he’s a key stakeholder in the Campaign Global brand, the world’s leading authority for the advertising, marketing and media industries, which was first published in the UK in 1968.
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