A new study report has revealed that the UAE will create space for one million workers in another five years, thanks to its digitisation push. A new skills forecast report by education company Pearson, and an enterprise software company, ServiceNow, said this amounts to a 12.1 per cent increase in the human workforce.
The report added that this represented one of the highest increases among the markets studied, which included the US, the UK, and India. While the US is just at 2.1 per cent, the UK is at 2,8 per cent and India at 10.6 per cent. Other markets that were studies included Australia, Canada, Germany and Japan.
Saudi Arabia, with its diversification projects, stands just below the UAE at 11.6 per cent.
The analysis also mentioned the sector that will want more employees. These are the finance, health care, energy, and utilities sectors. added.
Interestingly, the study report contradicts the popular sentiment about AI triggering job scarcity and layoffs. “The future of work depends on collaboration between people and AI, and it’s a future that’s hiring now,” William O’Neill, GCC vice president at ServiceNow, said in a statement. “What we are seeing in the UAE, as well as in nearly every other country surveyed, is that AI augmentation will be central to capturing the next wave of economic growth,” he added.
The analysis said that in five years, UAE firms will need over 91,000 additional technology specialists and other in-demand roles that will revolve around search marketing strategy, programming and computer systems analysis.
The UAE has been aggressively going for an AI push, partnering with tech giants like OpenAI, Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services besides investing in data centres. The Emirates is also using AI as a means to amass soft power and bolster the country’s brand as a modern state via technology.
