News

Study Shows Gen Alpha’s Growing Impact On The Digital Economy

Tech-savvy children aged 8-15 are reshaping global shopping and payment trends through their heavy use of social commerce and digital tools.

Published

2 years ago

November 27, 2024

Nour Nasir

study shows gen alpha's growing impact on the digital economy

A new study commissioned by Checkout.com, a global leader in digital payments, shines a spotlight on Generation Alpha (kids aged 8-15) and their increasing role in shaping the digital economy. Conducted across the UAE, UK, US, and China, the research dives into how these young consumers are influencing spending trends and reshaping commerce through technology and social media.

UAE’s Gen Alpha: Online Shopping And Gaming Enthusiasts

In the UAE, Generation Alpha is particularly adept at navigating today’s digital-first economy. The research reveals their heavy reliance on social platforms for shopping, with younger buyers gravitating toward social commerce. While 54% of millennials tend to stick to direct-to-consumer websites, 51% of Gen Z prefer shopping directly through social media.

The gaming sector is another area where the UAE’s young consumers are taking the lead. Children in the UAE spend 47% of their allowances on e-gaming, far surpassing the 28% spent by their peers in the UK, US, and China.

High-Value Purchases On The Rise

Parents’ spending on high-end items is soaring too. The report notes a 46% surge in luxury goods purchases and notable increases in home appliance and travel purchases. This trend signals a rebound in consumer confidence, particularly in recently hard-hit areas like tourism.

Interestingly, UAE kids are not just passive beneficiaries of parental spending. The study reveals that 75% of 8-year-olds and 92% of 15-year-olds in the UAE make purchases independently, often through digital platforms.

Buy Now, Pay Later Gains Traction

The research uncovers a surprising trend: a growing number of UAE children over 13 opt for “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) services. While still a small percentage (11%), this points to how younger generations are embracing alternative payment methods early on.

Global Insights: Social Commerce And Digital Influence

Globally, Generation Alpha influences about 27% of household spending, with digital purchases accounting for nearly a third of that figure. Parents increasingly buy digital products, such as educational tools and streaming services, with 47% prioritizing online learning resources.

Social media remains a dominant force in shopping habits. Across all regions, children use platforms like Instagram and TikTok to discover deals, with preferences varying slightly between countries. In the US, 57% of young shoppers rely on social media, compared to 41% in the UAE.

Physical stores, meanwhile, are becoming less popular. Just 35% of Gen Z worldwide shop in brick-and-mortar stores regularly, further underlining the shift to digital channels.

A Blueprint For Future Commerce

“Generation Alpha is playing a major role in the digital economy,” says Rory O’Neill, Chief Marketing Officer at Checkout.com. “Businesses must pay close attention to evolving customer preferences to stay competitive in this rapidly changing market”.

News

ESET Bets On Specialized Security AI At 0.5% The Training Cost

ESET says NeoCortex can estimate an attacker’s next move, with a kill switch and human oversight built in to keep it from going rogue.

Published

5 days ago

November 4, 2026

Dana Saadeh

eset bets on specialized security ai at 0.5% the training cost

A sign-in anomaly, a suspicious process launch and an unusual connection may look harmless alone. Together, they can describe an intrusion that is hard for security to teams to piece together.

To solve that problem, ESET announced ESET NeoCortex on November 4, 2026: a specialized foundational AI model for cybersecurity. It powers ESET LiveCortex, available within the ESET PROTECT Platform, which connects fragmented security signals and turns them into actionable incidents.

Filtering is the main selling point, with LiveCortex processing billions of raw telemetry events daily, and just 0.00111% of them contributing to incidents presented to customers. The aim is less alert fatigue and more analyst time spent on threats that matter.

NeoCortex is built on world-model architecture, learning how digital environments behave and how events relate. ESET says that lets it reconstruct missing incident context, recognize similar past cases and estimate an attacker’s likely next step – what the company calls “minus-one-day defense,” a chance to intervene before the next stage unfolds. ESET points to Black October, the week leading up to October 25, 2026, when critical security issues affecting PHP, Linux, GitLab and other key systems demanded rapid, prioritized responses, as the kind of moment where that context matters.

ESET’s internal research also suggests a specialized model like NeoCortex can be trained at up to 200 times lower cost than a large general reasoning model, while delivering more accurate, defense-focused results. The company credits optimized training, a focus on cybersecurity vocabulary, lower computing requirements and privately owned hardware.

Also Read: Dubai Says Its Deepfake Detector Needs Just 7 Seconds Of Video

“AI is accelerating both cyberattacks and cyberdefenses. With ESET NeoCortex, we are applying our AI investment to develop specialized foundational cybersecurity intelligence that remains under our control and strengthens, rather than replaces, human expertise,” said Juraj Malcho, Chief Technology Officer at ESET.

As part of the design, NeoCortex forms part of a layered architecture combining specialized models, deterministic controls, correlation logic, validation, auditability and expert human oversight. Safeguards include restricted sandboxes, read-only tools, continuous monitoring, defined usage and token limits, a kill switch and human oversight of critical response decisions. The model is also developed and self-hosted on ESET’s own infrastructure, which the company says reduces exposure to shifts among third-party AI providers, including commercial and geopolitical ones.