Smart AI, Smarter HR: Why Most UAE Companies Are Still Getting It Wrong

Just like every other sector, AI has promised to transform human resources (HR). But at the Future of Workforce Summit 2026, a panel of HR leaders delivered a blunt reality check - most companies do not have a proper strategy for how to implement AI or integrate it into existing work practices.

Ildi Haraszi, Vice President, Culture & Employee Engagement, TAQA Water Solutions shared her experience. "In my experience, we have a lot of experimentation happening," she said. "Most companies are trying to catch up with AI, but there is no strategy on how to introduce employees to the magic of AI."

She said that in her experience, only about 5 per cent of companies have successfully implemented AI.

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David van Lochem, CEO & Founder of Augmented Workforce, offered a more optimistic view. "We have moved more into real, agentic AI,” he said.“So, AI can do things, not just answer questions. In the last six or seven months, I've seen a really big uptake."

For Hedaya Al Ammari, successful AI adoption starts with strong foundations. She credited leadership for driving change at Mubadala. "Our group CEO had a vision that every single employee must be trained in AI,” she said.“They must have agents that help them in their day-to-day jobs. This energised the whole organisation."

But she stressed that technology alone is never enough. "The hardest part is never the technology," she said. "It's the commitment of human capital to work through this change - rather than deploying things at them."

Ildi Haraszi focused on“human readiness” and“creating an environment” for people to excel in. "AI is just another toy that has come along,” she said.“It's the human psyche that is constantly on guard, protecting its safety."

She warned that employees may resist or even sabotage AI initiatives if they feel threatened. "The role of HR - where the human is never going to be replaced - is to make sure people understand where AI benefits them."

The theme of mindset over tools echoed in a separate fireside chat where Anindyo Naskar, Group Head of Learning & Development at Landmark Group, highlighted the importance of having a digital mindset.“Moving from channel to intelligence means don't think tools, think processes,” he said.“AI is about transformation, not just productivity."

Fazeela Gopalani, Partner at EY Academy, added: "Organisations are consistently buying the latest new app. But what does a digital mindset actually mean in practice?"

Anindyo's answer was simple, it needs to start from leadership.“A startup mindset means three things: Are you able to see the problem, are you able to solve it, and are you able to scale it," he said.

Asked how he would redesign HR around AI, David pointed to three elements: automation, augmentation, and experience.

"I would start with recruitment - it's highly labour-intensive," he said. "Then learning and development. AI-based mentors can develop managers in ways we couldn't before."

Suzanne Gandy, Director of HR at Bayut and dubizzle, speaking from a tech-native environment, addressed the build-versus-buy debate. "It depends on what you're trying to achieve," she said. "If you're a large organisation with people analytics you don't want an LLM learning from you, you need to create that ring fence."

She warned that many HR practitioners underestimate the risks. "There's a naivety about where that information is going when they put it into an off-the-shelf AI model and what that model is learning and producing for other HR practitioners."

But she also highlighted AI's potential to free up time for human connection. "If you can quickly get your work done and actually walk to someone's office for a face-to-face conversation because you've got five more minutes - that's AI worth its weight in gold."

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