Nearly four years after ChatGPT’s launch, the Gulf’s hiring strategy is being built around artificial intelligence. In H1 2026, AI-related skills or tools were referenced in 3.4 per cent of professional vacancies— roughly one in thirty— compared to 1.2 per cent in 2022. 

Generative AI’s integration into mainstream use has gained momentum, with platforms such as Claude, Gemini, and Copilot becoming standard business and productivity tools. 

Based on the analysis of vacancies advertised on GulfTalent in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar over the period, the recruitment platform revealed that while the trend is clearly upward, AI still accounts for a small share of overall vacancies and is highly uneven across markets.

AI hiring is overwhelmingly concentrated in a handful of sectors, says the report.  

While the technology, banking, and audit sectors lead by a comfortable margin—nearly one in three and one in 15, respectively—the involvement drops further beyond these sectors. Oil and gas and real estate refer to AI in nearly one in 30 vacancies, while sectors such as construction, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, education, and hospitality have a figure of one in 100.

The report highlights that for much of the Gulf economy, AI has yet to make a meaningful impact on hiring. 

AI came up in about one in 30 vacancies for individual contributors and nearly one in 12 for senior leadership positions. AI involvement rose with seniority, though roles spanned both using AI and building it for others.

About a third require the use of AI as part of the role. One-third involved implementing and rolling out AI solutions. A quarter of the sales positions were centered on AI products and services.

For AI-connected jobs in the region, 35% were implementing AI, 31% were using it, 25% were selling it, and just nine percent were building the technology. 

“Demand is also not limited to engineers and data scientists. AI now appears in the job descriptions of sales executives, marketers, product managers, and consultants, underlining how the technology is spreading beyond specialist technical teams into the wider workforce,” stated the report.

The findings align with contemporary reports, including PwC’s Global AI Jobs Barometer, which found that 3.2 percent of UAE vacancies in 2025 required AI skills. 

Based on 118,000 direct employer vacancies advertised in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar between January 2022 and June 2026, the figures position the Gulf at the higher end of global AI adoption, ahead of the US and UK.