Over the past year, every conversation with business leaders in the UAE and across the region has revolved around: how to adopt AI to enhance employee productivity, accelerate business growth, and deliver impact.

There’s been a sense of urgency – of not wanting to be left behind in this new era of intelligent work. However, more recently, the nature of these conversations has begun to shift.

The question is no longer just how do we adopt AI, but how do we keep up with the accelerating pace of work?

As organizations, we’ve optimized for productivity, but at the cost of clarity, creativity, and connection. This is where the idea of the ‘Frontier Firm’ comes in, rethinking how work is done, time is used, and decisions are made to drive performance while respecting human capacity.

What the data tells us

According to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index Special Report: Breaking Down the Infinite Workday, the reality facing today’s workforce is both sobering and revealing – workers are more connected than ever before, but also more fragmented and fatigued.

Nearly half of employees (48%) and more than half of business leaders (52%) say their work feels chaotic and disjointed. Much of this stems from the sheer volume of communication: the average worker receives 117 e-mails daily.

These numbers are rising, with global messages per person up 6% year over year, and significantly higher in fast-moving regions like Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, where message volume has jumped more than 20%.

This always-on communication culture is eroding the boundaries of the workday: by 6am, 40% of people online are already scanning e-mails. By 10pm, 29% are back in their inboxes.

The average employee now sends or receives more than 50 messages outside of core business hours. Even weekends are no longer sacred, with nearly 20% of employees checking e-mails before noon on Saturdays and Sundays.

This constant flow of notifications and late-night calls has created a culture of reaction rather than reflection.

Meetings, too, have become a major driver of workplace fragmentation. Half of them take place between 9am–11am and 1pm–3pm, squeezing prime focus hours into a narrow band of availability.

Alarmingly, 60% of meetings today are unscheduled, with 57% occurring without a calendar invite, and one in 10 scheduled last minute. These patterns underscore a deeper issue: the current way we work is unsustainable.

Despite our best intentions, and the promise of smarter tools, the structure of work remains largely unchanged. This is why ‘Frontier Firms’ are so important – they represent a reset, a chance to build something better.

Becoming a ‘frontier firm’

Frontier firms don’t just adopt AI—they redesign work around it. They use AI to cut noise, focus on what matters, and free up time for meaningful work. It’s not about doing more, but doing better—amplifying human potential, not overwhelming it.

We are already seeing pioneering organizations across the UAE embrace this shift. Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD), for example, deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot as a digital assistant to help its workforce to streamline workflows, improve collaboration, and modernize internal processes; ultimately saving 39,000 hours annually and freeing employees to focus on delivering greater customer value.

Similarly, Majid Al Futtaim is using AI to reinvent how operational data is translated into action. The retail and lifestyle conglomerate is leveraging Azure OpenAI Service alongside Power BI and Power Apps to streamline reporting, reduce feedback cycles from seven days to just three hours, and achieve $1 million in annual savings.

Meanwhile, DEWA significantly improved internal efficiency by using Microsoft 365 Copilot to cut task completion time from days to hours – all while maintaining a 98% customer happiness rate.

Frontier firms go beyond adopting AI—they reinvent how work is done, value is created, and people thrive. In the UAE and the region, bold investments in AI give us a chance to lead this shift.

As such, we’re committed to helping organizations pair innovation with a people-first mindset to build not just productive, but resilient and future-ready businesses.

Rima Semaan

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