As many as 63% of smartphone users in the UAE are expected to delegate everyday tasks to artificial intelligence (AI) agents by 2030, as consumer adoption of AI grows and reshapes digital habits, according to a new report by Ericsson ConsumerLab.
The report, An agentic life: How consumer AI usage is shaping future network needs, finds that 10% of respondents in the UAE already use agentic AI to perform tasks they would previously have handled themselves. This is twice the global proportion.
The research also identifies 18% of smartphone users in the UAE as AI super users, a group that makes extensive use of multimodal AI. This share is projected to rise to around 46% by 2030. Meanwhile, 38% of respondents expect to use AI on another type of device, such as smart glasses, by the end of the decade.
AI adoption is also expected to create new demands on telecommunications networks. According to the report, AI response time is 2.4 times more important in determining network satisfaction for AI super users than for the average user.
“UAE’s strong uptake of consumer AI points to network needs beyond active screen time. As AI processing becomes more distributed across devices and the cloud, and agents work in the background, reliable uplink and consistent responsiveness become increasingly important,” says Jasmeet Sethi, head of Ericsson ConsumerLab.
Trust and network demands
The report highlights the potential role of communication service providers (CSPs) in verifying the identities of AI agents. These providers are identified as the most trusted sources for AI agent identity verification, an important consideration as 54% of daily AI users in the UAE express strong concerns about fake AI assistants acting in their name.
Petra Schirren, president of Ericsson Gulf Region, says: “The latest Ericsson ConsumerLab research shows that the number of AI super users in the UAE rises at a much faster rate than the global average. This testifies to the maturity of the country’s technology landscape as well as a strong appetite to embrace the latest innovations among its residents. The ongoing shift in consumer AI usage gives CSPs an indication of future network needs as multimodal AI raises the bar on connectivity and trust, enabling them to shape their strategies accordingly.”
As AI agents increasingly perform tasks in the background and operate across connected devices and cloud platforms, telecom operators may need to adapt their networks to support greater responsiveness, reliable connectivity and growing expectations around security and trust.
The research surveyed more than 43,000 smartphone users aged 15–69 across 27 markets. Ericsson ConsumerLab says the findings represent approximately 1.7 billion smartphone users worldwide.
The markets included Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, the UAE, the UK and the US.
