As cyber threats grow more targeted and interconnected, resilience in 2026 will no longer be measured or defined by individual controls but the strength of the entire ecosystem and the operational capabilities it supports. Attackers in the region are increasingly exploiting the gaps that sit between cloud platforms, AI-driven applications, partners and suppliers, rather than attacking a single system in isolation.
Cohesity’s research conducted on the sidelines of GITEX Global 2025 highlights how this challenge is playing out across the UAE. While 66 percent of organisations report full compliance with national data protection laws, one in three still struggle to keep up with evolving regulations. Nearly seven in ten organisations now review their AI governance practices every six months or less, showing that AI oversight is becoming a continuous operational requirement rather than an annual audit exercise. This shift reflects rising concern about shadow AI usage, volatile data flows and the need to ensure AI systems do not introduce new points of exposure.
Despite strong confidence levels, 87 percent of organisations believe they can recover quickly from an incident, yet many still face difficulty validating the integrity of their data across multi-cloud environments and external service providers. The research shows that 62 percent of UAE organisations now monitor compliance directly across their third-party suppliers, signalling a sovereignty-first mindset where businesses take ownership of governing their wider ecosystem.
The lesson is clear; the level of resilience capabilities is as strong as your weakest link. Whether that lies in a supplier’s cloud configuration, a partner’s data handling practices, or an internal team’s legacy system, one gap can undermine even the most sophisticated cyber strategies.
As digital transformation reshapes the region’s digital ecosystems, attackers are increasingly targeting the connections between systems rather than single vulnerabilities. This is why organizations are beginning to treat AI governance as part of their core resilience strategy, since unmonitored AI models and unmanaged data flows can quickly become weak links in the wider ecosystem. As a result, organisations are rethinking cyber maturity as a collective responsibility shared across partners, platforms, and policies. The leaders of 2026 will be those who recognize that true resilience is built collaboratively, not defensively.
As this interconnected threat landscape evolves, organizations will need to strengthen the core pillars that enable true operational cyber resilience. Against this backdrop, several key predictions will shape how organisations build cyber resilience in 2026.
- Data risk posture will become a board-level priority, driven by stricter regulatory expectations, AI-generated data flows and increased pressure to demonstrate clear oversight across cloud and third-party environments.
- End-to-end data protection will become non-negotiable, with organisations expected to prove that critical datasets are recoverable across on premises, cloud and edge locations.
- Verified recoverability will replace assumed recoverability, as organisations face growing scrutiny to demonstrate clean, sovereign and jurisdiction-aligned restoration during disruptions such as ransomware or wiper attacks.
- AI governance will emerge as a critical pillar of cyber resilience, with organisations adopting continuous oversight of model behaviour, monitoring AI-driven data flows and enforcing strict guardrails to ensure AI systems do not introduce new exposure points across multicloud environments. As part of this shift, organizations will also need to ensure that AI models operate effectively across major languages rather than relying on English-first deployments. Without this level of internationalization, gaps can emerge in output quality, model accuracy and oversight, creating new governance blind spots that weaken overall resilience.
- Sovereign AI adoption will accelerate, as organizations, cities, and nations seek to maintain control over how data is stored, processed, and governed within their borders. Increasingly, organizations and governments are recognizing the advantages of keeping data within their own corporate or geographic boundaries, using sovereign AI. While this strengthens privacy, compliance, and strategic autonomy, its long-term value will depend on how effectively it is balanced with innovation, interoperability, and cross-border collaboration.
- Operational resilience will redefine cyber maturity, with organisations routinely testing applications, identity systems and recovery playbooks to build real-world readiness and reduce downtime.
In 2026, cyber maturity won’t be about the strength of individual defences but the collective integrity of the digital ecosystem. The future belongs to those who treat resilience as a team sport.
