AI Impact On UAE Jobs: Most Firms Restructure Teams, Avoid Layoffs

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)

Major companies across the UAE and GCC are rethinking how work gets done as artificial intelligence (AI) adoption gains momentum - but instead of cutting jobs, most are choosing to merge responsibilities, restructure teams and reshape workflows, according to a new study.

Released by Cooper Fitch, the study Redefining Work: AI & the Future of Talent found that AI is leading to the consolidation of roles as 55 per cent of firms in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are merging roles rather than triggering widespread layoffs.

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“It's more like a merger of roles and responsibilities than job cut questions, as 60 per cent of those surveyed said that there will be very minimal job impacts. The roles that are being impacted by AI at the moment are junior, graduate, administrative, data entry, some report writing, and automation roles,” Dr Trefor Murphy, founder and CEO of Cooper Fitch, told Khaleej Times in an interview.

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The recruitment agency noted that AI removes specific tasks rather than entire roles.“In doing so, it reshapes work itself: streamlining team operations, redefining role requirements, and shifting where human judgment adds the most value.”

Nearly one-third - 31 per cent - of survey respondents in the UAE and GCC expect some role elimination in the next 12–24 months, focused on repetitive activities rather than entire roles. Only seven per cent reported that AI has led to some job loss, mainly in narrow roles such as transcription, admin, junior analysts, or creative production, not across entire functions.

Expectations vs reality

The study found that employers' expectations for higher productivity are increasing due to the rise of AI, but employees believe the technology is still in its early stages and not yet capable of delivering on those demands.

“Employees are cautiously optimistic about AI, underpinned by rising performance expectations and staff sense that output demands are rising faster than the technology is delivering.

"Because employees got AI, employers believe that they need to be quicker, faster, and do more work. But the technology is really only at its beginning stage in terms of how it can impact. Overall, AI optimism is there, but it's fragile and without proper investment by companies and new skills,” Dr Murphy added.

“There's a lot of pressure from boards onto the C-level guys that they've got AI, so make things more efficient, and more money as a result. However, employees say that they are required to use this AI tool, then review and make the necessary changes. And in some cases, it's not more efficient for certain jobs,” he said following the launch of the study 'Redefining Work: AI & the Future of Talent'.

The survey covered 350 organisations representing more than 200,000 employees across the UAE and GCC region.

Shortage of AI experts

The study also revealed a shortage of AI expertise within both local and regional companies.

“Everything is very fragmented. Someone in sales is doing this, someone in finance is doing that, someone in HR is doing something else,” Dr Murphy noted, adding that multinational companies are scaling AI at an enterprise level of 42 per cent, compared to just seven per cent among GCC-owned businesses.

“No one is looking at AI and understanding how it can benefit the organization, and scale it up properly.”

The study found that 41 per cent of surveyed companies are spending less than $500,000 annually on AI. Meanwhile, 19 per cent are investing between $500,000 and $5 million, and 8 per cent are spending more than $5 million.

“It's very fragmented. Technology isn't really delivering what people, or the board, or what the expectation of the organization is. In some cases, it is causing burnout and fatigue in the employees,” Dr Murphy concluded.

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