Middle East Leaders Rank Cybersecurity as Top Risk for 2026 — But AI Governance Confidence Lags Behind

A new regional leadership survey has confirmed what many enterprise security professionals in the Gulf have long suspected: cybersecurity is no longer just an IT concern in the Middle East — it is the boardroom's defining challenge for 2026.

Heidrick & Struggles' latest CEO & Board Monitor report, which surveyed 148 senior leaders across the Middle East at the close of 2025, places the region at the forefront of global cybersecurity awareness — while simultaneously revealing a governance gap in AI readiness that boards have yet to fully close.

Cybersecurity: The Region Leads Global Concern

Among the five regions surveyed, the Middle East recorded the highest proportion of leaders identifying cybersecurity risk as a primary organisational concern for 2026. Nearly half — 49% — flagged it as one of the most significant issues their organisations expect to face this year, well above the 31% global average.

That level of concern is not unfounded. The GCC's rapid digital transformation, combined with its status as a high-value geopolitical target, has made the region a consistent focus for sophisticated threat actors. Board-level vigilance in the region has reached an all-time high as a result.

Crucially, regional leaders are not just worried — they are broadly confident in their ability to respond. 58% of Middle East respondents say they are confident in managing cybersecurity risk, compared with 51% globally. For enterprise security teams working to secure executive sponsorship and budget, this alignment between concern and confidence at leadership level represents a meaningful window of opportunity.

The AI Governance Gap: Confidence Below the Global Average

Artificial intelligence is rising rapidly as a board-level issue in parallel — 47% of Middle East respondents identified AI as a major concern for 2026, again the highest proportion among regions surveyed and above the 44% global average. But confidence in managing AI tells a different story.

Only 36% of Middle East leaders say they are confident in their organisation's ability to manage AI, compared with 39% globally — the only major metric in the survey where the region falls below the international benchmark.

"Cybersecurity confidence in this region is well-earned, but AI is a different kind of challenge entirely," said Maliha Jilani, Partner-in-Charge at Heidrick & Struggles Middle East & North Africa. "It is moving faster than most governance structures were designed to handle, and that gap is real."

For security leaders, this finding carries operational weight. AI is no longer a future consideration — it is active in enterprise workflows today. Unmanaged AI deployment introduces real threat vectors including prompt injection, shadow IT behavior, and ungoverned data access. The board-level confidence gap identified in this survey suggests that the governance layer required to manage these risks is still being built.

Board Composition Is the Lever

Jilani's recommended response is structural rather than procedural: "Boards that are ahead of this are already thinking differently — whether that means refreshing board composition to bring in AI expertise, or establishing dedicated advisory structures that can keep pace with technology."

This mirrors a broader trend across the region, where national digital transformation programmes are increasingly requiring board-level technology accountability — not just CTO-level execution.

Culture as the Overlooked Variable

The survey also surfaces a less-discussed leadership vulnerability: organisational culture under technological pressure. Only 46% of Middle East respondents reported confidence in their organisation's ability to maintain a healthy culture — the lowest of any region surveyed, and notably below the 55% global average.

"The board's role in culture is often underestimated," said Dr. Jay Bevington, Global Board Advisory Leader at Heidrick & Struggles MENA. "In an era of AI-driven change, and with external pressures reshaping how organisations operate, that scrutiny needs to be sharper than ever."

For cybersecurity professionals, this has a direct parallel: security culture — the degree to which employees at every level make security-conscious decisions — is increasingly recognised as a front-line defense. Organisations with low cultural confidence are statistically more vulnerable to social engineering, phishing, and insider threat scenarios. The connection between board-level culture concern and enterprise cyber resilience is not incidental.

What This Means for GCC Security Leaders

Taken together, the Heidrick & Struggles findings outline a regional leadership profile that is alert, reasonably confident on cybersecurity, but structurally underprepared for AI governance — and under quiet pressure on culture. For CISOs and security leads operating in the Middle East, this data provides both validation and leverage: the board is listening, cyber risk is a priority, and the case for AI security investment has executive-level data to back it.