UAE labour market transformed by AI: MOHRE's 2026 vision for digital innovation

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) announced that 2026 will mark the year of its full-scale rollout of artificial intelligence, advanced technologies and digital innovation, with the integration of cutting-edge solutions  including all AI applications  across the ministry’s systems, operations, customer services and organisational structure.

Shaima Al Awadi, Acting Undersecretary for Labour Market Development and Regulation and Assistant Undersecretary for Communications and International Relations at MOHRE, affirmed that artificial intelligence is a core pillar of the UAE’s leadership vision and future journey. She referred to the UAE Artificial Intelligence Strategy, which aims to achieve 100 per cent reliance on AI in services and data analysis by 2031, enhance government performance, accelerate delivery and create innovative work environments.

In a blog published on the Ministry’s official website, Al Awadi said: “The UAE Government seeks to be the world’s first in harnessing artificial intelligence across its vital sectors and in creating a promising new market in the region with high economic value.” She added: “Within this strategic direction, MOHRE has successfully adopted an innovative model to embed AI across all its systems, operations, services and organisational structure, guided by a comprehensive vision to enhance the efficiency, competitiveness and flexibility of the labour market and the ease of doing business.”

She explained that this strategic approach supports the Ministry’s efforts to eliminate bureaucracy, enhance customer experience, contribute to the UAE’s leadership and competitiveness in government services, and reinforce its position at the forefront of the global digital economy.

Al Awadi announced that the Ministry is expanding the digital transformation of labour market services and integrating them with AI outputs within a unified government ecosystem. This includes strengthening data integration with government entities through unified AI-enabled platforms to ensure data accuracy and the rapid exchange of information.

She noted that these efforts improve procedural efficiency, reduce service delivery time and provide a comprehensive picture of the labour market, empowering decision-makers to develop more flexible and effective policies. This, in turn, enhances customer experience and strengthens the UAE’s global competitiveness.

She added that the ministry is also enhancing decision-making frameworks by developing AI-based predictive models to anticipate future labour market changes and analyse the actual needs of various economic sectors. This supports proactive planning and the formulation of development-aligned policies, bolstering the readiness of the UAE labour market to keep pace with rapid changes and ensuring its long-term competitiveness.

Al Awadi concluded: “Based on these foundations, MOHRE, in collaboration with its partners, has reshaped the operations and services of the UAE labour market through AI outputs. We will continue to move forward with confidence to build on our achievements, with the happiness of our customers as our primary goal and in line with the directives and aspirations of our wise leadership.”

MOHRE recently announced the completion of approximately 13 million transactions using automation and artificial intelligence, without human intervention, from the beginning of the year until 10 December.

These smart transactions covered a wide range of ministry services, marking a significant milestone in its steady progress towards embedding AI across all areas of operation, in line with the second phase of the “Zero Bureaucracy” programme and the digital transformation of services. This supports the competitiveness of the UAE labour market and its contribution to achieving the UAE Vision 2030.

The ministry follows a sustainable methodology for developing services using optimal AI solutions, leveraging its advanced digital infrastructure and enhancing the skills of its workforce to efficiently manage smart automation. This is implemented in parallel with electronic integration with partners across the government ecosystem, enhancing ease of doing business and meeting customer expectations for fast, seamless, round-the-clock services.

MOHRE is further expanding the digital transformation of labour market services and integrating them with AI outputs within a unified government ecosystem. It is also strengthening data integration with government entities through unified AI-driven platforms to ensure data accuracy and speed of exchange. These measures raise procedural efficiency, reduce service completion time, provide a holistic view of the labour market and empower policymakers to adopt more flexible and effective policies  positively impacting customer experience and enhancing the UAE’s global competitiveness.

In addition, the ministry is strengthening its decision-making ecosystem by developing AI-based predictive models that enable foresight into future labour market trends and a deeper analysis of the real needs of various economic sectors. This supports proactive planning and ensures the sustained competitiveness and readiness of the UAE labour market.

Speaking to Gulf News, Hussain Al Alili, Director of the Customer Voice Department at MOHRE, said that the initial results of integrating AI into the contact centre demonstrated a significant impact in enhancing its performance. This reflects the Ministry’s readiness, the efficiency of its human capital and its ability to leverage emerging technologies to develop services aligned with customer needs reinforcing its leadership in government services and the “Zero Bureaucracy” initiative, while supporting the UAE’s digital transformation goals and its status as an ideal destination to live, work and invest.

The results showed that AI integration has significantly improved efficiency and reduced time and effort. The “text-to-speech” feature enhanced the performance of the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, strengthened periodic awareness campaigns and saved hundreds of working hours by reducing call-handling time through instant, automated response preparation. This cut the time required for recording messages and handling calls by approximately 90%.

More than five AI-powered awareness campaigns were launched, generating nearly 60,000 AI-enhanced calls to inform and remind customers to comply with regulations within the prescribed timelines. AI also saved more than 1,000 working hours and reduced call review time from 10 minutes to just two minutes.

The ministry has successfully upgraded its monitoring and quality control systems by deploying advanced AI-based quality assessment solutions. These provide an automated model built on comprehensive analysis of call records, including transcripts, summaries and keywords. The system also enables the creation of smart evaluation models to monitor compliance with approved scripts, enhancing assessment accuracy, reducing operational errors and improving overall efficiency.

These tools have reduced the time required for performance evaluations by 89 per cent, significantly increasing sample sizes to ensure result accuracy and further improving the customer experience.