Artificial intelligence has become a standard workplace tool across the United Arab Emirates, according to a survey commissioned by enterprise software provider Workday and conducted by Censuswide. The study surveyed 500 full-time UAE employees aged 25 and older at organisations with at least 1,000 workers and annual revenues above $100,000 during June and July.
The findings show that UAE employees save an average of 3.6 hours per week through AI adoption. About 33 percent of respondents said AI enabled them to manage heavier workloads without adding headcount, while 24 percent reported that AI-related savings contributed to cost reductions, including lower overtime, vendor, and headcount expenditures. Furthermore, 32 percent cited training, reskilling, and upskilling as areas benefiting from these efficiency gains.
However, the study highlighted significant limits regarding output quality and human oversight. Employees reported spending an average of 3.4 hours each week clarifying, correcting, or rewriting low-quality AI-generated material, offsetting most of the gross time saved.
Workplace AI usage is broadly entrenched across organisational tiers. Among employees using AI at work, 90 percent use it at least once a week, 58 percent multiple times weekly, and 18 percent every working day. Adoption also extends to senior leadership, with more than half of surveyed directors and C-suite executives reporting weekly AI usage. Zakaria Haltout, Group Vice President for Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Workday, stated that sustaining long-term value requires governance, trust, human oversight, and skills investment.
Sources
- People Matters Global · 2026-10-07
