Recent months have tested the resolve of businesses across the region in ways few could have planned for. Geopolitical shocks, cyber incidents and supply chain disruption have moved from abstract risk categories to lived experience for many organisations in the UAE and the wider region.

Against that backdrop, business continuity management (BCM) has quietly become one of the more consequential boardroom conversations of the year. New research from Optro (formerly AuditBoard) puts numbers to what many leaders have sensed instinctively: confidence in resilience is high, but performance under real pressure often tells a different story. Richard Chambers, senior advisor, Risk and Audit at Optro and former CEO of The Institute of Internal Auditors, spoke to Gulf Business about what the findings mean for organisations navigating an increasingly unpredictable operating environment.

It’s been an unsettled period for businesses in this region, on multiple fronts. How should leadership teams be thinking about resilience right now?
What we’ve seen over the past year is resilience moving from a risk management conversation to a boardroom conversation. Geopolitical instability, supply chain shocks, and high-profile cyber incidents have made it impossible for senior leaders to treat business continuity solely as an IT department concern. It’s now clearly an enterprise issue, and leadership teams are responding.

Nearly half of UAE organisations reported increased BCM budgets over the past 12 months, and 51 per cent expect spending to rise further over the next two years. That’s a meaningful directional signal.

Our research also found that BCM is led by IT in nearly a third of organisations. That might seem logical on the surface, but it fundamentally misframes what resilience is. When you position it as a technology function, you end up with siloed integration, fragmented accountability, and programmes built around reactive recovery rather than proactive resilience. The business ends up running on confidence borrowed from a framework that was never designed to protect the whole enterprise.

Given everything organisations here have had to absorb recently, would you say the region is more prepared than it was, or has confidence outpaced actual readiness?
Confidence has certainly grown, but our research suggests it hasn’t always been earned through testing. Often, that confidence comes from the top. Senior leadership typically sets the tone on resilience, and if they haven’t been through a serious disruption themselves, it’s easy to believe the plans are solid without ever stress-testing them.

The problem is that BCM complexity is often invisible until it isn’t. When something goes wrong, the lack of a clear chain of command, undefined accountability, and untested plans don’t just slow you down; they can cause organisations to miss their own recovery targets by more than twice the planned timeframe.

The numbers back this up. For organisations that experienced a significant disruption during the past 12 months, 62 per cent failed to recover within their established recovery time objectives, and over the past 24 months, 59 per cent of UAE organisations reported losses exceeding $500,000 as a result. Nearly one in four have never subjected their BCM programme to formal external validation or audit.

Spending more on a programme you’ve never stress-tested doesn’t build resilience. On the contrary, it risks building a more expensive false sense of security.

The threat landscape in this part of the world looks quite different to other markets Optro has researched. What makes resilience a harder problem here specifically?
The threat environment here is uniquely severe. The UAE’s Cybersecurity Council has shown that the country is one of the most targeted in the world for cyber attacks, and with the majority being state-sponsored, that means greater sophistication, greater persistence, and a significantly higher bar for what “adequate protection” actually looks like. Layer on top the geopolitical volatility we’ve seen this year, and the case for resilience has never been more urgent.

What I find genuinely encouraging, though, is that business leaders are taking note. BCM is moving up the agenda, budgets are increasing, and organisations are starting to treat this as a strategic priority rather than a checkbox exercise. The gap between where organisations are and where they need to be is real, but so is the momentum to close it.

A lot of the disruption businesses here have faced hasn’t originated inside their own operations at all; it’s come through partners and vendors. How much of a factor has that been?
A significant one, and it’s often underappreciated. Businesses today don’t operate in isolation. They depend on complex, interconnected networks of vendors, cloud providers, logistics partners, and service platforms. When one link in that chain breaks, the impact ripples fast. We’ve seen this play out recently in the region when a cloud provider outage brought businesses to a grinding halt.

Our research makes the scale of this risk very clear. More than four in five UAE organisations reported that a third-party outage or failure had caused significant disruption to their operations in the last two years. Among those, 67 per cent said the resulting business impact exceeded one million dollars. What makes this particularly concerning is the visibility gap: just 31 per cent of UAE organisations report having full visibility into the BCM plans of their critical vendors. This is the lowest figure globally, and far below the international average of 49 per cent.

You can’t manage risk you can’t see, and for most organisations here, a significant portion of their operational risk lives outside their own four walls, in a supply chain they’ve never fully mapped.

For a business that recognises it needs to do more but doesn’t know where to start, particularly with so much else competing for attention right now, what would you tell them?
I’d tell them it doesn’t require starting from scratch, and that’s the reassuring part. Our research points to three practices that separate organisations that recover quickly from those that don’t.

The most cited contributor to success, at 44 per cent, was regularly testing and updating plans before incidents occurred, not once at onboarding, but as an ongoing discipline. Strong management of third-party continuity risks was the second differentiator at 41 per cent. Given how dependent most organisations are on cloud providers and critical suppliers, resilience is only as good as the ecosystem around it. The best performers actively manage that exposure rather than assuming their vendors have it covered. The third, at 35 per cent, was clearly defined and tested decision-making authority and crisis communications.

When an incident unfolds in real time, the organisations that respond well aren’t improvising; they’ve already answered who decides, who communicates, and who has authority to act. That clarity is the difference between a controlled response and an escalating crisis.

None of these happens without deliberate intent. So, a realistic starting point would be to pick one, and make it continuous rather than periodic.

Looking beyond risk mitigation, could how a business handles disruption actually become part of how it competes in this market?
Absolutely, and I think that’s an angle that businesses here underestimate. Consider what happens when a major bank experiences downtime because a critical cloud provider goes offline. When customers can’t transact, can’t access funds, and can’t run their business, they’re not interested in the technical explanation. They’ll question why their provider can’t meet expectations, and in a market where customers have genuine choice, that question has real commercial consequences.

UAE customers place a clear premium on reliability. Look at Emirates, consistently one of the country’s most valuable brands. The consistency of that service experience is central to what the brand stands for, and it didn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of deep investment in operational resilience across every layer of the business. That’s a trait that resonates strongly here, where trust and dependability carry real weight in purchasing and partnership decisions.

Given where BCM maturity currently sits across the UAE market, the gap between best-in-class and average is wide, making the opportunity to leverage resilience as a competitive differentiator more immediate than most organisations realise.

Families across the UAE are counting down to the start of the new school year, with students on the country’s August/September academic calendar set to return to classrooms on Monday, August 31.

With just over three weeks remaining until the start of the 2026-27 academic year, parents are preparing for the return to school — and this year brings some important changes, including new admission age rules and a freeze on private school tuition fees in Dubai.

Here is what parents need to know.

When do UAE schools reopen in 2026?

The 2026-27 academic year begins on Monday, August 31, 2026, according to the UAE Ministry of Education’s approved calendar.

Administrative and teaching staff at public schools and private schools following the Ministry curriculum are due to return a week earlier, on August 24, with training scheduled ahead of students’ return.

The August 31 date applies to the country’s August/September school cycle. In Dubai, schools following Indian, Pakistani and Japanese curricula operate on an April-to-March academic year and therefore follow a different calendar.

Parents should also check their individual school calendar for orientation days, staggered starts for younger pupils and other school-specific arrangements.

When are the UAE school holidays in 2026-27?

Under the Ministry’s calendar, the first-semester mid-term break is scheduled for October 12-18, with pupils returning to classes on October 19.

The winter break begins on December 14, with students returning on January 4, 2027.

The spring break begins on April 5, with classes resuming on April 12, while the academic year is scheduled to finish on July 2, 2027.

Some private schools not following the Ministry curriculum can adjust mid-term breaks with approval from their local education authority. The Ministry says these schools may split the break between October and February, subject to permitted limits, while separate rules apply to private schools in Sharjah.

New UAE school admission age rules start this year

One of the biggest changes for families with younger children takes effect from the 2026-27 academic year.

For schools beginning their academic year in August or September, the age cut-off for new admissions has moved from August 31 to December 31.

Under the new rules, children must turn the required age by December 31 of the year they enrol. That means:

• Pre-K / FS1: three years old by December 31
• KG1 / FS2: four years old by December 31
• KG2 / Year 1: five years old by December 31
• Grade 1 / Year 2: six years old by December 31

The change applies to new pupils entering the system from 2026-27. Children who were already enrolled during the 2025-26 academic year will continue their existing progression and will not be moved because of the new cut-off.

Schools whose academic year starts in April will continue to use March 31 as the relevant age cut-off.

Are Dubai private school fees increasing?

There is some relief for parents in Dubai this year.

The Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) confirmed in May that private school tuition fees will not increase for the 2026-27 academic year.

The freeze was announced under the directives of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, as part of a wider package of economic measures aimed at supporting residents and businesses.

Dubai’s private education market currently spans 17 different curricula and a wide range of fee levels.

Parents should, however, check their school’s individual fee fact sheet for costs beyond tuition, including transport, uniforms, extracurricular activities and other services.

What else is changing in Dubai schools?

Dubai’s KHDA will also resume quality assurance visits to private schools during the 2026-27 academic year, as part of a renewed approach to assessing school performance and student outcomes.

The regulator said the visits will use data including student achievement, school self-evaluations and other indicators to determine the type of assessment carried out at individual schools.

For most families, however, the immediate date to circle on the calendar is Monday, August 31 — when the summer holidays end and a new UAE school year gets under way.

The UAE is set for several days of unsettled weather, with rainfall, convective clouds and strong winds forecast across parts of the country through the middle of next week.

The National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) said fair to partly cloudy conditions are expected on Saturday, with convective clouds developing during the afternoon over some eastern and southern areas and bringing rainfall.

Temperatures will remain particularly high, reaching between 45°C and 49°C across inland areas and between 39°C and 45°C along the coast. Mountain areas are forecast to reach between 32°C and 39°C.

Winds will be light to moderate, blowing from the southeast to northeast before strengthening at times with cloud activity. Gusts could reach 50kph, potentially causing blowing dust and sand.

Sea conditions are expected to remain slight in both the Arabian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.

Rain chances continue on Sunday

A similar pattern is forecast for Sunday, with convective clouds forming during the afternoon over some eastern, southern and inland areas, accompanied by rainfall.

Winds could again reach 50kph during cloud activity, raising dust and sand, while inland temperatures are forecast to remain as high as 49°C.

On Monday, the NCM expects another chance of convective cloud formation over eastern and southern areas during the afternoon, with associated rainfall.

Winds are forecast to reach up to 40kph, while maximum temperatures could hit 48°C along the coast and 49°C inland.

Temperatures to ease from Tuesday

Conditions are expected to begin changing on Tuesday, when the NCM forecasts a gradual decrease in temperatures, particularly across coastal areas.

Skies will remain fair to partly cloudy, with some clouds developing over eastern areas during the afternoon. Coastal highs are forecast at between 39°C and 44°C, compared with up to 49°C inland.

Winds will shift from southeasterly to northwesterly and could reach 40kph at times, again causing blowing dust.

By Wednesday, temperatures are forecast to ease further, with coastal maximums of 38°C to 43°C and inland highs of 42°C to 47°C.

The NCM said there will still be a possibility of convective clouds developing over eastern areas during the afternoon on Wednesday, which could be accompanied by rainfall.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) said 15 of its vessels had been attacked by missiles and drones while transiting the Strait of Hormuz since the beginning of the conflict, resulting in one fatality and 20 injuries among crew members.

Three of the vessels were attacked this week, ADNOC said in a statement on Friday, without providing details about the vessels or the circumstances surrounding the incidents.

The state-owned energy company said it remained focused on meeting customer requirements despite what it described as an exceptionally challenging operating environment.

ADNOC said it was coordinating with the relevant authorities and taking measures to protect its employees, assets and operations while seeking to meet customer requirements as much as possible.

“Freedom of navigation and the safe, uninterrupted passage of commercial shipping through international waterways must be respected and protected without threat, harassment or attack,” the company said.

Something I find myself telling the engineers on my team, more often as the years go on, is that the most interesting moment in the deployment of new technology is when a skilled human and a well-designed Artificial Intelligence (AI) system start to amplify each other genuinely.

I have watched this happen across all domains: defence, public security, civil aviation, space, and even cybersecurity. Each time, what strikes me is that AI extends what humans direct and oversee. Human thinking brings something the system cannot deliver: judgment shaped by real experience, curiosity about what the data is not yet showing and the wisdom to know when to slow down and look again.

What those moments have taught me is that the future of AI is fundamentally human. This might sound counterintuitive from someone who has spent his professional life building these systems, but working with AI, where the stakes are real, gives you a very clear perspective on where the value actually lies.

AI is a remarkable amplifier of human expertise. A cybersecurity analyst working alongside AI can simultaneously monitor, investigate and act against threats to an entire national infrastructure. A maintenance engineer supported by AI diagnostics can identify patterns across a whole fleet in less time than it used to take to assess a single aircraft. A pilot working with advanced flight management systems has a level of situational awareness that earlier generations of equally skilled pilots could only imagine.

In fact, the people who gain the most from AI systems share a common strength. They treat the AI’s output as the beginning of a conversation and bring their domain knowledge into it with confidence and clarity.

They are interested in where their own judgment and the system’s recommendation diverge, because that divergence is often where the most important insight lives. Consider this quality as AI literacy. The capacity to understand a system well enough to know when to trust it and when to challenge it, probe further and let your own expertise take the lead. Developing that literacy, at scale, across entire professional workforces, is the most consequential AI investment for any organisation or nation right now.

The UAE has a strong position in this context. The investments made in AI infrastructure are delivering significant results. For example, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence is contributing to global AI development, while the UAE National AI Strategy gives the country’s digital ambitions coherence and a steadfast direction. The decision to create a ministerial portfolio for AI places accountability for the agenda where it can most effectively inform policymaking. This the development of a foundation. One that positions the UAE to become the leading example for trusted and sovereign AI deployment, where advanced technology and human capability are built together intentionally.

A practical tool for building that model is fostering robust public-private partnerships to promote human-centric AI. By collaborating with technology companies and ensuring they adhere to standards for human oversight and ethical practices, it is possible to encourage the development of systems that enhance human-AI collaboration across all sectors.

Let’s consider a real-world case: The aviation sector built its safety record over half a century through close cooperation between regulators and industry leaders to define how pilots and automated systems share responsibility. This same collaborative spirit in developing trusted AI frameworks has the potential to significantly advance human capability, bringing together innovation and expertise to create a safer and more effective technology landscape.

The strongest form of AI leadership lies in a nation’s ability to shape how AI is developed and governed, leveraging the expertise of its own people. This is rooted in a culture of research and collaboration, where professional development builds human capital, and organisations prioritise individuals who can critically engage with AI technologies. This talent development is the cornerstone of AI sovereignty, ensuring that advancements in technology reflect the values and priorities of society.

The most powerful component in any system is the human at its heart. Every system designed and governed by Thales has reinforced that belief. The extraordinary thing about the current AI-charged environment is the magnitude of what becomes possible when human judgment and trusted AI capability are developed together.

The UAE has the resources and institutional momentum to lead this. For a country that has consistently turned strategic foresight into tangible achievement, this is exactly the kind of opportunity to tap into to solidify the nation’s standing in global AI leadership that’s trusted and sovereign.