MENA's AI Optimism Meets Demand for Human Control

In Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco, 66% of respondents believed artificial intelligence would create more quality jobs than it destroys. Worldwide, 85% wanted a global regulatory framework and human oversight. The figures come from the Priority Compass, a Future Investment Initiative Institute report released Wednesday, based on a survey of more than 61,000 people across 32 countries.

That contrast is the story. Confidence about jobs in the three MENA countries sits alongside a broad demand to keep human beings in control of AI development. The survey records what people believe and want. It doesn't establish how many jobs AI will create, who will control the technology, or how any proposed oversight would be enforced.

Optimism, with a human hand on the controls

The MENA figure exceeds results reported for Europe, where 27% believed AI would create more quality jobs than it destroys, and North America, at 33%. Globally, 54% disagreed that AI would create more quality jobs than it destroys. In the Global South, 43% disagreed; in the Global North, 70% did.

The regional split complicates any easy story about who welcomes the technology. MENA respondents expressed more job optimism than respondents in the other regions cited, but the report also found broad support across regions for human oversight. The published findings describe a demand for control; they don't spell out whether that control would belong to workers, governments, companies, or some combination of them.

Dr Maha bint Mishari, chief executive of the FII Institute, wrote that the “clamour is 'underscoring a global demand for human control on emerging technologies'.” The call is international in scale: 85% of respondents worldwide want a global regulatory framework and human oversight for AI development. The report, as presented, gives no enforcement plan or account of which institutions would write and apply such rules.

The bills people already feel

Dr Maha also said: “Half of all respondents continue to cite the cost of living as their number one concern, underlining a global confidence crisis unrepresented in headlines.” She said people everywhere felt the effects of inflation, job insecurity and everyday expenses. That concern sits beside AI-job optimism, not beneath it.

Inflation remained the leading cost-of-living concern. Energy and fuel costs had become the next-largest worry. In the Global North, concern about fuel costs rose to 42%, from 29% the previous year. In the Global South, low wages ranked second, at 32%, compared with 17% in the Global North. Concern about energy costs in the Global South reached 29% in 2026, up from 22% the previous year, the FII Institute said.

These figures make clear that respondents are judging emerging technology amid immediate concerns about wages, prices and work. A survey answer about future job quality isn't a wage, a job guarantee, or a mechanism for workers to shape technological decisions. The report gives the optimism numbers; it also records the insecurity and living costs that frame them.

The survey found another sharp regional divide: acceptance of cryptocurrencies stood at 81% in Africa and 71% in the three MENA countries. The Global South's overall score was 69%, more than double the Global North's 30%, while Europe recorded the lowest figure, 28%. The report puts those attitudes alongside calls for AI oversight, but the findings supplied don't explain what drives either response. For now, the figures show both enthusiasm for new technology and a widespread demand that people retain control over its development.