Bridgeways: UAE leads the world in AI investment momentum

Bridgeways, a wealth management technology firm, reports that the United Arab Emirates ranks second globally on its optimism index for artificial intelligence, while investors in the UAE lead the world on the firm’s momentum metric measuring intent to replace traditional research with AI tools. The findings come from a global study titled "The State of AI in Wealth 2026" and suggest a pronounced shift in how UAE investors gather investment information and manage risk.

"Many investors in the UAE no longer treat these instruments as add-ons. Rather, it is an essential part of how they evaluate markets and manage risks," Bridgeways said in its summary of the study.

Study details and regional results

• The study, "The State of AI in Wealth 2026," sampled 2,100 participants across 19 countries, covering adults aged 18 to 75 with active bank accounts.
• Bridgeways built a global index of AI optimism based on four axes: adoption, trust, leadership and momentum.
• The Middle East topped regional rankings, followed by Asia and the Pacific, North America and Europe; the UAE and Saudi Arabia were singled out for their contribution to the Middle East’s position.
• Globally, 78.3% of survey respondents said they already use AI to obtain investment information.
• Some 65.1% of participants reported they plan to replace at least part of manual search processes with AI tools within a year.

Bridgeways emphasized that in all markets surveyed the UAE showed the "strongest confirmed shift" toward using artificial intelligence instead of manual investment analysis methods. The firm's momentum index is explicitly framed as a measure of "the extent of investors’ determination to replace traditional research methods with artificial intelligence tools during the coming year," underlining the behavioural component of the findings rather than purely technological availability.

Beyond headline rankings, the study’s methodology — four axes combining adoption, trust, leadership and momentum — signals an attempt to capture both sentiment and likely near-term behaviour. The high regional ranking for the Middle East, and the prominent roles of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, reflect market-level openness to AI-driven wealth tools as reflected in the survey responses.

Outlook: Bridgeways’ data implies that wealth managers, fintech providers and platforms operating in the UAE should expect growing client demand for AI-enabled research, risk analytics and portfolio construction tools. With more than three-quarters of respondents already using AI for investment information and two-thirds intending to substitute manual searches within a year, the study points to an acceleration of AI integration into everyday investment workflows. Firms that can demonstrate trustworthy, transparent AI capabilities aligned to the four index axes — adoption, trust, leadership and momentum — may be better positioned to capture inflows from investors repositioning toward algorithmic and data-driven decision-making.