Gulf Leads the World in 'Workplace Intelligence'.. 93% of Employees Use It Weekly
The fourth edition of the “Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace” report, published by the Boston Consulting Group, reveals that Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries lead the world in adopting artificial intelligence and relying on its technologies in the workplace. Specifically, 93% of frontline employees in Gulf institutions and 95% of managers and leaders use AI technologies at least several times a week.
The fourth annual report, titled “Artificial Intelligence at Work 2026,” was issued by BCG X, the strategy, technology, and AI arm of the Boston Consulting Group. It draws on data from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar, highlighting the accelerated adoption of AI in the region and the need to develop regulatory frameworks to ensure this adoption translates into sustainable institutional value.
Report findings indicate that AI is beginning to deliver tangible time savings. Fifty-eight percent of frontline employees and 67% of managers and leaders reported saving at least eight working hours per week thanks to the use of AI tools, compared to a global average AI adoption rate of 74% among frontline staff.
AI gains are no longer limited to time savings and increased productivity; they have extended to changing the skills required in the labor market. Eighty-five percent of frontline employees and 92% of managers and leaders confirmed that AI has fundamentally altered the skills required for their jobs. Furthermore, 69% of frontline employees and 77% of managers and leaders stated that using these technologies has increased their sense of satisfaction and enjoyment in performing work tasks.
The impact of AI is moving into a more advanced phase with the expanding use of “AI agents.” Sixty percent of frontline employees and 66% of managers and leaders expect these systems to perform at least half of their current job tasks within the next three years. Globally, the rate of integrating AI agents into workflows has more than doubled since 2025, while governance frameworks have yet to keep pace with the speed of technological development.
Despite this expansion, concerns related to job loss remain relatively limited. Twenty-eight percent of frontline employees and 29% of managers and leaders expressed concern that AI would replace them in their jobs, reflecting a trend toward viewing these technologies as tools to enhance performance and productivity rather than as a direct threat to jobs.
Globally, 42% of frontline employees who use AI regularly save a full working day or more per week. However, 66% of them receive little or no guidance on how to invest the additional time, and more than half do not direct the saved hours toward strategically valuable work.
Conversely, a gap emerges between the rapid spread of technology and workers’ readiness to use it. Globally, 72% of regular AI users believe the skills required for their jobs have undergone fundamental changes, while only 36% said they received adequate training. Additionally, only 33% of frontline employees reported that their leaders communicate clearly about AI strategy, and only 28% perceive genuine alignment between what leaders announce and what institutions implement in practice.
These indicators reveal that the challenge is no longer merely introducing AI tools into the workplace, but rather how to convert the time and productivity they save into actual value for organizations. This requires developing employee skills, redesigning workflows, and establishing strategies and governance frameworks capable of keeping pace with the rapid transformation in the nature of jobs.
