70% of UAE workers use AI. Microsoft says businesses now face the harder test

Dubai: More than 70% of the UAE’s working-age population is already using artificial intelligence, leaving businesses with a more difficult question over how to turn widespread adoption into higher productivity, better decisions and measurable returns.

Microsoft’s latest AI Diffusion Report puts AI usage among the UAE’s working-age population at 70.1%, the highest rate globally.

“The UAE is already beyond the question of whether people will adopt AI,” said Amr Kamel, Managing Director of Microsoft UAE.

“So, to me, the more interesting question is: what do businesses do with that capability now that it exists?”

Over the next two to three years, Kamel expects AI to have its biggest impact on the capacity of organisations to take on more work, move faster and tackle problems that previously required significantly more time, people or specialist expertise.

This will also change what employees do, with more execution increasingly handled by AI and agents while people spend more time setting direction, applying judgement, solving complex problems and making decisions.

Kamel described the model as a “Frontier Firm”, one that remains human-led while becoming increasingly agent-operated and focused on outcomes.

The opportunity for UAE businesses extends beyond helping individual employees complete tasks faster.

Kamel said the larger gains are likely to come when companies rethink complete processes.

A bank, for example, could redesign an entire customer journey, while an energy company could analyse complex operational data in real time. Government entities could use the technology to create more proactive and personalised services.

“The UAE has already demonstrated that it can diffuse AI quickly. The next advantage will come from turning that widespread capability into entirely new levels of productivity, innovation and business capacity,” he said.

Companies moving from pilots to broader deployment can also make the mistake of treating scale as simply putting more AI into more parts of the organisation.

Kamel said the harder task is ensuring that systems operating across different teams learn from one another.

Copilots and agents can generate information on how work is carried out, where processes slow down, how customers respond and where human judgement produces better outcomes.

Companies risk losing part of that value when the learning remains confined to individual teams or applications.

“One of the biggest mistakes companies can make now is scaling AI without scaling organisational learning,” Kamel explained.

“The organisations that build that feedback loop will be better positioned to turn AI from a collection of tools into a durable source of competitive advantage.”

Companies looking for financial returns from AI will also need to become more disciplined about what they choose to deploy.

Kamel said organisations should begin with the business problem they are trying to solve and identify a clear outcome, whether that means serving a customer faster, helping an employee make a better decision, reducing risk or turning a process that takes days into one completed within hours.

“The organisations that generate meaningful returns will start with a business problem, not an AI budget,” he said.

Not every proof of concept should proceed to company-wide deployment, according to Kamel. Businesses need to identify applications producing genuine value, establish the required data and governance foundations and expand those that deliver results.

The way businesses assess returns also needs to move beyond the number of pilots launched or the amount of technology purchased.

“AI success should not be measured by how many pilots a company launches or how much technology it buys. It should be measured by whether AI produces better business outcomes, and whether those outcomes can be repeated responsibly across the organisation.”

Government is among the UAE sectors furthest ahead in putting AI into wider use, according to Kamel.

The federal government now has a framework for deploying agentic AI across government operations, while Abu Dhabi has set an ambition to become fully AI-native across digital government services by 2027.

Financial services and energy are also seeing strong momentum, helped by large volumes of data, complex workflows and opportunities to improve decision-making, productivity and customer experience.

Energy companies are increasingly moving beyond experimentation towards broader deployment, although Kamel said data quality, security and talent remain important when trying to scale.

Some of the biggest remaining gains could come from businesses that do not have large technology teams or the resources to build AI systems from the ground up.

Kamel pointed to SMEs, entrepreneurs and growing companies as an important part of the next phase of adoption.

Making AI infrastructure, tools and skills accessible to these companies will influence how widely the economic gains spread through the UAE economy.

“The next chapter for the UAE is therefore not simply having more AI adopters. It is enabling more organisations and more people to participate, create and generate value with AI.”

Microsoft also expects a larger share of AI innovation to emerge from within the country as organisations become more sophisticated users of the technology.

Kamel sees scope for more locally relevant solutions, more UAE companies building with AI and deeper technical expertise developing within the market.

Collaboration between industries could play a larger role, particularly when expertise in areas including energy, financial services, healthcare, aviation and government is combined with advances in AI.

“I think the most meaningful outcome would be deeper collaboration around the capabilities the UAE will need for the next phase of its AI economy,” Kamel said.

AI Everything Abu Dhabi will bring together more than 350 AI enterprises, unicorns and startups at ADNEC Centre on October 6 and 7.

The event will feature companies working on AI infrastructure, advanced models and applications alongside government entities, investors, academia and technology specialists, with research, pilot launches, new technologies and real-world business applications expected to be showcased.