By: Fares Akkad: Regional Director| Middle East and Africa at Meta

One defining shift from 2025

AI stopped being a product conversation and became a power conversation.

2025 made it clear that the hard part is no longer models or capability — it’s trust, governance, and who gets to deploy AI at scale, where, and under whose rules. The leaders who mattered most were not the most technical, but the ones who could bridge technology, policy, and real-world execution without breaking confidence on any side.

One bold, grounded prediction for 2026

By 2026, the most valuable AI leaders won’t run companies — they’ll run corridors of trust between governments, enterprises, and platforms.

Success won’t be defined by who builds the best model, but by who is allowed to operationalize AI inside national systems, regulated industries, and critical infrastructure. Titles will matter less than credibility, and influence will flow to those who can translate frontier capability into something institutions are willing to adopt, defend, and scale.