GCC 2026 Digital Government Citizen Survey
BCG’s biennial Digital Government Citizen Survey, conducted by the firm’s Center for Digital Government, tracks citizens’ opinions and beliefs about government digital service delivery. The 2026 edition, spanning 44 countries and 48,500 respondents, is an inflection point for government digital transformation, driven by the rapid expansion of AI and the rise of agentic AI. Here we report key findings from participating GCC countries, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, based on 1,500+ respondents from the region.
GCC countries have established themselves as leaders in digital government services, complementing the advanced technological literacy of their populations. A decade of ambitious transformation has increased digital service adoption, usage, and reliability, while also improving service satisfaction (+15%) across all GCC geographies. This contrasts with the global trajectory, with satisfaction 21% lower than a decade ago.
That strong digital track record, coupled with the GCC’s relatively high levels of AI literacy and adoption, creates a distinctive starting point for the next frontier of transformation. As AI becomes more embedded in both government services and citizens’ daily lives, it is raising expectations and surfacing a new, more practical and forward-looking set of concerns. Agentic AI is opening further possibilities for how governments serve citizens, while rapid AI innovation in the private sector is beginning to shift a public-private service dynamic that has remained relatively stable for years. Together, these shifts create new opportunities and new considerations for GCC government leaders.
GCC Governments Can Build on Strong AI Literacy and Hybrid Services While Setting Guardrails
AI literacy is a fertile ground on which to build
Confidence that the benefits of using AI in government outweigh the risks has decreased over the past two years across all levels of experience. Increasing awareness and continuous usage have begun to raise questions about the risks of AI.
But literacy, at the same time, has a strong impact on attitudes. Optimism increases substantially with the proficiency of users. In the GCC, expert users report a ~4x higher level of confidence in its benefits than those without AI experience. This gap widens when reflected globally, where expert user scores report a 7x higher level of confidence than the least proficient respondent group. This is also attributed to the lower proportion of users globally who believe AI benefits outweigh the risks in the least proficient group (9%), in contrast with 17% of users in the GCC in 2026.
GCC government services lead in service quality, but the private sector is catching up
GCC government services have set the gold standard for service quality over the past decade. In 2026, the GCC remained the only region amongst those surveyed globally that ranked public digital services higher than those of the private sector, where the net percentage of respondents who rated digital government services as better than private sector ones accounted for 69%.
Citizens report a range of attitudes towards digital government services across the surveyed countries. Those who believed that public sector digital services were superior to the private sector reached 76% in the UAE, 74% across Saudi Arabia, and 68% in Qatar. While this reflects differences in the transformation journey of each government, the 72% overall GCC average far surpasses the global average of 44%.
Global relative service quality rankings have remained stable over the past two years, but the GCC has seen a marked improvement in citizens’ opinion of private sector digital services. The net percentage of respondents rating government services above the private sector in the GCC decreased from 75% in 2024 to 69% in 2026. This creates a learning opportunity for governments and the impetus to innovate further.
Citizen expectations are moving towards an AI-centered, hybrid future
AI in the public sector is expanding beyond basic deployments. Three of the top four use cases in government services are now starting to employ agentic AI. Even as attitudes toward AI become more nuanced, GCC citizens remain significantly more comfortable (+30pp) with AI and agentic usage than their global peers. The number of respondents saying they are comfortable with such services far outweighs those who are uncomfortable. This lays the foundation for more AI and agentic citizen-facing service expansion.
The expectation in the GCC is that government services need to be AI-centered (79% vs. 66% global). However, the past two years have seen a shift in preference toward a more hybrid model, where AI performs simple services, but humans are involved for more complex ones. This trend aligns with greater awareness and caution regarding AI usage, and mirrors global preferences. Nonetheless, the percentage of respondents who preferred human-only servicing with no support of AI tools remains relatively lower in the GCC (4%) compared to the global average, where almost one in every ten respondents preferred a human-only interaction.
Employment and operational risks are top-of-mind, highlighting the need for robust safeguards
A closer look at GCC citizens’ concerns with AI reveals that job loss (~33%) and results accuracy (~28%) remain paramount, in alignment with global averages. However, GCC citizens are less focused than their global peers on ethical concerns (-4pp) and transparency of AI models (-6pp). Instead, operational risks such as data volumes and individuals’ capabilities are top-of-mind. While more than 10% of GCC citizens report no concerns at all (up ~5pp since 2024), the overall dip in optimism toward AI in government services, is a statistic GCC government leaders should note. The overall percentage of GCC respondents who believe the benefits of AI use in government outweigh the risks has dropped by 21pp since 2024. Nevertheless, confidence in government AI usage in the GCC remains high compared to global findings.
To further strengthen their trust in government AI services, GCC citizens are looking for technical and process safeguards (e.g., independent certification, testing, and documentation) as well as public reporting. Such measures are aligned with key principles of responsible AI.
