Dubai’s Elite Architects of Future-Proof Economy Through AI, Aviation, and Global Capital 
Dubai in 2026 is a city of economic verticals, where the 100 most influential people are those who make it tick. Hana Al Rostamani’s FAB bank is in many ways, a sovereign wealth fund, using its AI to channel billions into African fintechs and European green hydrogen firms. Tayba Al Hashemi, an executive at ADNOC Offshore, has turned the data from oil rigs into SaaS for predictive maintenance, sold in Houston and Tokyo.
Dubai’s influence is being invested across multiple verticals. From the 66 new additions to the 2025 Dubai 100 list, it is evident that power is increasingly decentralized, with younger executives, technologists, and regulators shaping the conversation. The shift reflects an overall change in the type of capital flowing into the emirate – from traditional real-estate oligarchs to crypto-utopian pioneers. For the first time in recent memory, youth and hybridity appear to be the driving forces behind the formation of the rankings.
HE Mona Al Marri’s impact on her region is profound: she is convincing not only tourists but multinational companies to relocate their regional HQs to Dubai by offering full ownership, zero tax, and AI-assisted visa processes. At the same time, Alisha Moopen’s Aster DM Healthcare has turned the United Arab Emirates into a medical tourism destination, using an almost feudal strategy that sees robot-assisted surgery and genetic screening on offer to paying customers.
While Al Marri’s work reshapes perceptions of the Middle East at large, Suzanne Al Anani is working on something bigger – bringing Dubai’s air-traffic control system into the future through AI-assisted collision avoidance systems and drone traffic management. Meanwhile, another icon of the region, Joelle Mardinian, has succeeded in leveraging her clout as a beauty influencer to promote the UAE as a luxury destination, with every post she makes on social media serving as an advertisement for local brands.
