Publicis Groupe Middle East’s Bassel Kakish On How Its New Resilience Business Pulse Report Reveals Confidence In The UAE Amid Uncertainty

Publicis Groupe Middle East, the regional arm of the France-based communications group, has unveiled Resilience Business Pulse, a report offering a cross-sector snapshot of how UAE business leaders are responding to a period of regional disruption, and what that signals for the country’s next phase of growth. 

Built on input from more than 60 senior executives across industries like fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), hospitality, automotive, retail, energy, logistics, and financial services, alongside paid media insights and a survey of over 300 consumers conducted via the firm's Youth Studio, the report highlights a market adapting its strategies, rather than retreating.

In an interview with Inc. Arabia, Bassel Kakish, CEO of Publicis Groupe Middle East and Turkey, said that the report captures a perspective often overlooked by broader narratives about the UAE’s business environment. “What this report revealed most clearly is what's been missing from the conversation, the perspective of the people actually running businesses here, in real time, under real pressure,” he explained. “What comes through is conviction, not optimism in the abstract, but the kind earned by operators making real decisions, holding their teams steady through the short-term pressure, without losing sight of what comes next for their people, their industry, and their business.” 

That conviction is demonstrated in the report’s findings, with 100 percent of the leaders surveyed saying that they are confident in the UAE’s trajectory, while 94 percent said that they trust the government to protect the business environment. Additionally, 78 percent believe the country will emerge in a stronger competitive position, while 56 percent would still recommend it as an investment destination. Kakish also highlighted that the report is also a reflection of how both business leaders and consumers are experiencing and managing uncertainty. “We captured the operational reality as well, with 60-plus business leaders sharing what they’re seeing across demand, supply chains, and their organizations, managing real pressure against real profit and loss statements (P&Ls)," he said. "But what makes those insights more telling is the context behind them, how decisions are being shaped by uncertainty and the need to adapt quickly. We also brought in the consumer voice, surveying 300 Gen Z and millennial youth on how they’re navigating uncertainty and what they expect from brands right now.”  

According to the report, sectors such as banking and financial services are witnessing increased demand, while telecom and technology continue to operate as essential infrastructure. Luxury spending has shifted further into digital channels as e-commerce captures a greater share of discretionary spend. On the other hand, real estate is consolidating established, trusted players focused on long-term value. Meanwhile, leaders in the FMCG sector reported navigating margin pressures amid evolving demand patterns, while those in the automotive industry face a pronounced operational strain. 

Across sectors, leaders reported that they continue to face operational challenges, particularly around supply chains and margins. The report revealed that 41 percent of leaders cite supply chain disruption as a key revenue pressure, with that number rising to 77 percent in the FMCG sector. On the demand side, 17 percent of leaders reported growing demand, while another 17 percent say demand is shifting rather than declining, indicating evolving consumer behavior across channels, categories, and price points. 

These pressures, however, are not equal across industries. “Where sectors differ is in the specific dynamics they're responding to," Kakish noted. "Automotive is absorbing deferred demand on high-ticket items. FMCG is managing a margin squeeze while demand reshapes across channels and price points. Media and advertising feels the effect indirectly, through client caution. Banking is counter-cyclical, with demand growing because people need financial services more, not less, during uncertainty. One crisis, several realities. But the organizing question for every leader right now is the same: are you building, or are you waiting? There is no neutral position.” 

Kakish added that, critically, the findings reveal how businesses are managing their operations as well as their investments, with the key distinction being in how organizations and leaders are choosing to respond to the current period. “The real divergence isn't between sectors," he said. "It's between leadership styles and organizational cultures. Some companies are taking a more measured approach right now, reassessing priorities, recalibrating where they invest. Others are treating this as a moment to move forward, making strategic bets, reinforcing consumer trust, and building capability for what comes next. The ones leaning in are the ones that tend to come out of periods like this stronger.” 

The report also found that the disruption is accelerating structural shifts already underway, with businesses increasing uptake of digital commerce, performance-led media, artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled efficiencies, and more selective, value-driven consumer engagement. Here, Kakish drew a sharper distinction, noting that these changes are not uniform in either scale or impact. “These shifts are not equal in nature, and it's worth being precise about that," he pointed out." Digital transformation and AI is structural. This is a continuation of what the COVID-19 crisis accelerated. What's different now is the shift from AI-enabled efficiency to AI-enabled experience. Those are very different things. Efficiency is about doing what you already do, faster and cheaper. Experience is about meeting the consumer in genuinely new ways, personalized, predictive, useful. The brands investing in 1:1 customer relationship management, first-party data, and AI-driven customer experience are earning what we call the ‘resilience dividend.’ They're not just managing through this period, they're using it to rewire the relationship with their consumers.”  

A similar change is evident in how brands are reshaping their media strategies under current conditions, Kakish noted, though he was quick to make the distinction between the brands making short-term adjustments to their communications and those making longer term strategy resets. “The shift to performance-led media is tactical, not structural, and it needs to be read correctly," he said. "Right now, brands are concentrating on lower-funnel activity for two reasons: to drive short-term sales, and to de-risk communication in a sensitive environment. That's a reasonable crisis response. But it is not a sustainable marketing model. Brands that stop building awareness, engagement, and trust will lose the game. You can weather a short period in pure performance mode, but the long and the short of it is that performance media feeds on brand equity that was built before. The brands getting the best performance results today are the ones who invested in brand equity over the past several years. Pull the upper funnel for too long and the lower funnel stops converting. That rebalancing will need to happen quickly. Digital commerce is somewhere in between, structural in most categories, where the consumer migration from offline to online is not reversing, and more nuanced in others. If I had to pick the shift with the most lasting impact, it's the digital and AI infrastructure play. Performance media moves with the cycle. Digital and AI capability, once built, compounds.”  

According to Kakish, the report’s findings reflect a strong vote of confidence in the UAE, signaling three things about the opportunity that lies ahead for startups and SMEs operating in the nation. “First, confidence in the UAE as a place to build is intact," he said, "100 percent of the leaders we surveyed expressed confidence in the country's trajectory. 94 percent trust the government to protect the business environment. That is a remarkable signal, sustained through real disruption. For a founder deciding where to place their bet, that matters."

“Second, the support ecosystem is moving,” Kakish continued. “The UAE government has stepped in with funds and relief mechanisms. Banks are coming forward with schemes to help businesses manage cash flow. The institutional response has been fast, which is consistent with how this country operates under pressure. Third, and most importantly, the business you built before the crisis may not be the business the market needs right now. The single biggest advantage startups and SMEs have over larger competitors is agility. This is the moment to use it. Lean harder into the startup culture of adapting fast, testing fast, and reshaping the proposition to where demand is actually moving. Large companies are moving. They're just moving more slowly. Founders who use that window and who treat this period as a chance to out-adapt rather than out-spend will come out of this with a real advantage. The opportunity isn't to wait for normal. It's to build for what's next."