- Over 500 thought leaders and 150 cybersecurity leaders gathered in Dubai for a special joint session of the Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity.
- The meetings addressed trade and geostrategic shifts, innovation for growth and prosperity, cybersecurity, as well as climate action, food innovation, health and the energy transition, setting the tone for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos.
- Experts addressed complex interconnected issues and explored solutions to embed cybersecurity and resilience across sectors.
- Revisit public sessions at the Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity 2025 here and on social media using #AMGFCC25
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 16 October 2025 - The World Economic Forum Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity convened over 500 experts from government, business, civil society and media, together with 150 of the world's foremost cybersecurity leaders.
Amid geoeconomic and geopolitical shifts and technological transformation, the meetings - organized in collaboration with the Government of the United Arab Emirates - provided a vital platform to navigate uncertainty, interpret emerging trends and strengthen resilience across industries, societies and economies. Council members and cybersecurity leaders advanced future-ready solutions to interconnected shared challenges, spanning trade and geoeconomic shifts, innovation for growth and prosperity, cybersecurity, climate action, food innovation, health and the energy transition.
Participants highlighted the critical role of emerging technologies, coordinated governance and collective action to build a secure, sustainable and equitable future. The Annual Meeting on Cybersecurity, held jointly with the Global Future Councils, focused on strengthening global cooperation to enhance digital trust, resilience and collective readiness for emerging threats.
"In this new, more uncertain era, dialogue is our greatest source of innovation and resilience," said Børge Brende, President and CEO, World Economic Forum. "Only through open exchange - across disciplines and industries, with a range of perspectives - can we unlock the ideas and trust that we need to move the world forward together."
"The UAE's long-standing partnership with the World Economic Forum has evolved the Global Future Councils into a platform for collective foresight and global action, addressing the opportunities and risks of an increasingly digital and cyber-driven world," said H.E. Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs of the United Arab Emirates and Co-Chairman of the Global Future Councils. "This collaboration reflects our shared commitment to transforming vision into practice and ensuring societies are equipped for the transformations ahead."
Discussions at the Annual Meetings highlighted the Forum's unique ability to connect future-oriented insights across disciplines and anticipate emerging risks and opportunities.
"The Forum's Global Future Councils convene diverse perspectives to translate frontier insights into action around pressing global challenges," said Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director, World Economic Forum. "Multidisciplinary conversations such as these are essential towards ensuring that societies and businesses are ready for the opportunities and disruptions ahead."
"The world needs a positive outlook on the future, not one that overlooks challenges but one grounded in optimism and problem-solving," said Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications of the United Arab Emirates. "We must move from driving forward through the rearview mirror to looking through the windshield with clarity, confidence and purpose."
"This is the best time ever to be a human because of what we know, but we should always keep front and centre the magnitude of what we don't know," Sylvia Earle, Creator, Mission Blue Foundation, National Geographic Society, and Co-Chair of the Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity 2025.
"The UN secretary-general has put together a very forward-looking agenda. The pact for the future that looks at AI, at energy, at climate. I think we're going to see a UN that is fit for that purpose and we need a UN fit for that purpose," said George Gray Molina, Head of Inclusive Growth and Chief Economist, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
"The physical world around us operates better than it ever has before. It's safer, more profitable, it's more economic and fantastic. But if it collapses, if it goes down, not all of us will understand why it took place or how to recover it," said Robert M. Lee, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Dragos.
The programme brought frontier issues into focus, with spotlights on innovation and growth in a shifting landscape, cybersecurity and other topics, including climate action, energy, health and food.
Innovation for inclusive growth
Participants identified key innovations, policies and business models that could drive meaningful and sustainable economic growth and a forward-looking agenda, focusing on competitive business environments, private investment, industrial policy and the green-digital transition. They also examined shifting economic trends and growing trade fragmentation, exploring how governments and businesses can adapt to new realities while strengthening cooperation, security and resilience.
Emerging technologies and AI were recognized as key drivers of future growth. Councils looked at the infrastructure needed to support innovation while balancing sustainability priorities and energy efficiency, highlighting the importance of adaptive strategies across diverse contexts. Experts also advanced work on space technology, committing to developing foresight scenarios to navigate critical uncertainties driving the future of the space economy. Leaders discussed how to make regulatory systems more agile and adaptive to risks posed by multiple emerging technologies.
Strategic intelligence and foresight methodologies were embedded in the UAE Strategic Intelligence Councils and other selected councils to build scenarios and define actions for policy innovation across AI, technology, trade, investment, the economy and tourism. Councils also addressed advanced manufacturing and value chains, governance frameworks, rebuilding trust and dialogue across societies, reimagining aid, as well as GovTech and digital public infrastructure.
In addition, councils advanced work on coordination, preparedness and governance in decentralized finance, the experience economy, gender parity, human capital development, robotics, generative biology, artificial general intelligence, neurotechnology and next-generation computing.
The Forum's Jobs of Tomorrow: Technology and the Future of the World's Largest Workforces report highlighted how four technologies - AI, robotics, advanced energy systems and sensor networks - are set to transform seven job families that together employ 80% of the global workforce. An "output lab" on scenarios for the global economy imagined how the pace of AI development could intersect with labour market conditions over the next five years.
Participants explored how AI and shifting workforce trends could shape work by 2030, identifying strategies for businesses, labour markets and societies. A resource hub , with a key focus on financial education, was launched to share best practices, research and solutions that can be used by policy-makers, business and civil society leaders worldwide to advance financial inclusion.
"This year's meetings showed how leaders from across sectors can come together to shape practical solutions for the future," said Maroun Kairouz, Managing Director, World Economic Forum. "In an era of accelerating geoeconomic and technological shifts, participants explored how to strengthen resilience in trade, innovation and investment, and turn dialogue into action around shared priorities."
"AI is a new oil," said Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cybersecurity, United Arab Emirates Government. "It could change a lot of the way we see and deal with technology."
"For a long time, digital transformation meant moving from paper to screen, but AI changed everything. AI will enable us to offer services through phones and to deliver them in local languages," said Cina Lawson, Ministry of Digital Economy and Transformation of Togo.
Cybersecurity
With digital infrastructure embedded in daily life - from hospitals and airports to financial systems and democratic institutions - cybersecurity has become integral to modern life. Leaders underscored its central importance to national security, economic resilience and public trust. They called for innovation and strong governance to safeguard digital societies and the economy, and strengthened resilience across and between sectors and borders.
Bridging gaps between advanced and emerging economies - and between large enterprises and smaller organizations - was seen as vital to global cyber maturity. Recent high-profile breaches showed that resilience must extend beyond the enterprise to suppliers, partners and service providers. Shared platforms, cyber insurance and public-private training initiatives were highlighted as tools to close the "resilience gap" across industries and regions.
Participants also cautioned against applying traditional notions of sovereignty to the technological realm. Building trust across borders was seen as essential for cyber resilience, requiring aligned frameworks and sustained public-private collaboration to balance privacy, sovereignty and accountability. They highlighted practical and scalable tools to view cybersecurity and resilience through an economic lens, allowing leaders to prioritize investments where they matter most.
With AI emerging as both an enabler and source of risk in the evolving cybersecurity landscape, participants stressed the need to balance innovation and governance, especially as frontier technologies accelerate faster than legal frameworks. Emerging intersections, such as between AI-generated fraud, supply chain disruption and geopolitical escalation, were recognized as key to driving resilient cyber futures. Human oversight into AI-powered defence systems will also be essential to prevent unintended bias, misuse and systemic failure. Councils advanced work on data governance and topics such as synthetic data, sovereignty and privacy, and information integrity.
The Cybercrime Atlas: Impact Report 2025 demonstrated how collaboration can disrupt cybercrime. Another report highlighted the role of chief information security officers as strategic enablers for organizations. An "output lab" on technology and digital security produced a briefing paper focusing on human capital, information integrity, emerging technologies and global governance.
"As digital systems evolve at unprecedented speed, so do the risks they carry," said Jeremy Jurgens, Managing Director, World Economic Forum. "By bringing together experts and leaders, the meetings provided an opportunity to anticipate cyberthreats, share breakthroughs and strengthen the collective resilience needed to keep the Intelligent Age secure."
"Investing in security by design or resilience by design is seen as a shared responsibility," said Rachel Ellehuss, Director-General, Royal United Services Institute.
"We tend to share stories when these cybercriminals were successful," said Max Smeets, Co-Director, Virtual Routes. "It's equally important to share the stories where you had cases of prevention and also where cybercriminals failed."
"We have to take care of everyone within the system," said Dario Leandro Genua, Secretary of Innovation, Science and Technology of Argentina. "We're only going to be as strong as the weakest link in the network."
Climate action, food innovation, health and the energy transition
Discussions explored how emerging technologies are affecting climate action and sustainability, food innovation, health and the energy transition. Participants updated a roadmap to integrate natural capital into the global economy and advanced work on innovative financing, nature-security links, clean air, climate and nature governance, the forest economy, geoengineering and antimicrobial resistance. They also outlined a shared vision for a regenerative ocean economy grounded in science, equity and resilience, and reinforced the importance of soil health as vital to climate, nature and food security.
On energy, councils advanced work on the links between energy and water, agriculture, economic development and growth, as well as the need for an equitable green transition that works for people and planet. As part of the continued collaboration between the UAE's Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Forum, participants examined how social robotics are transforming healthcare, education and public spaces.
The 10 Emerging Technology Solutions for Planetary Health report spotlighted technology solutions to accelerating climate action by changing the way the world powers homes, grows food and secures freshwater. During an "output lab" dedicated to nature and climate, participants reimagined global economic systems to deliver shared prosperity within planetary boundaries. Discussions focused on integrating environmental stewardship, resilience and equity into economic design.
"There is global awareness and youth engagement around climate change," said Alison Holmes, Professor of Infectious Diseases and Director, Fleming Initiative, Imperial College London. "We need to be able to do that in addressing the challenge with antimicrobial resistance. It's a threat to our healthcare now and it's a threat to our healthcare in the future."
"If we think about AI being born green, we can imagine a brighter future - thinking about the way in which we can put in place particular legislative arrangements for data centres to be powered by renewables," said Elizabeth Thurbon, Professor of International Political Economy and Director, Green Energy Statecraft Project, University of South Wales.
"In Africa, the foundation of space development lies in socioeconomic and sustainable development - in how we can leverage space technologies to solve our fundamental problems here on Earth," said Temidayo Oniosun, Managing Director, Space in Africa. "Today, the African space economy is valued at around $20 billion, with combined national space budgets increasing from $280 million in 2018 to about $500 million."
"We have enough money in the world, but not enough money to de-risk technologies. Going from pilot to large scale means a big risk. The banks are not there to finance this kind of innovation. We need to be innovative at financing," said Yousef Yousef, Chief Executive Officer, LG Sonic.
