79% UAE business leaders trust AI with budget allocations, salaries, hiring & talent management

A whopping 80% of business leaders and executives in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) fully trust Artificial Intelligence to handle their organisations' finances, according to a recent study conducted by Endava.

The study titled, ‘AI Everywhere: How UAE Business Leaders View AI in Life, Work and Society’,  also explored how the UAE business leaders have their confidence in AI for high-stakes decisions that affect their everyday worklife. They use AI to determine salary levels, hiring or redundancy recommendations, design health & safety policies, as well as, performance management decisions. Some of the key findings from the study are: 

Budgets and AI: The study reveals that nearly 79% of business leaders in the UAE trust AI to allocate budgets within their organisations, even for decisions that could affect individual compensation.

Interestingly, the same percentage (79%) are confident in AI managing talent processes like hiring and performance management.

What’s more, 80% say they would be comfortable with AI-driven systems taking charge of critical health and safety functions.

Workplace, Career, and AI: What’s remarkable is that this trust in AI goes far beyond the workplace. UAE business leaders are now turning to AI as a personal strategic advisor.

Four out of five respondents said they would trust a fully automated AI system to guide their career decisions, from mapping out salary progression to advising when to seek promotions or explore new opportunities.

The same level of trust extends to personal financial choices like investments and retirement planning, as well as health recommendations. All of this points to a growing public readiness to hand over major life decisions to intelligent systems.

Low-risks and AI adoption: The adoption readiness among leaders seems to stem from a strong optimism about AI’s role in creating, not eliminating, jobs.

Nearly three-quarters of business decision-makers said their organisation has already created, or plans to create, dedicated AI roles like ‘Head of AI’.

Moreover, 75% believe that successful AI adoption will significantly boost their own job satisfaction. From making hiring or redundancy recommendations to shaping health and safety policies, the research shows that employees are now ready for a new era of AI-led decision-making, one that goes far beyond automating low-risk, repetitive tasks.

Business impact with AI: The business case for AI adoption is just as strong. 71% of business leaders said AI has already had a direct impact on improving their company’s profitability. But the pressure to keep up is real, over half of the respondents believe that if their organisation doesn’t make meaningful progress in AI adoption, it risks losing market share within just two years.

Some companies are clearly stepping up. About 30% of decision-makers said their organisations plan to significantly increase AI investments in 2025 compared to 2024.

However, challenges remain. Only one in four leaders believe their current infrastructure, from data management to analytics, is fully prepared to support enterprise-level AI deployments.

Commenting on the findings, David Boast, General Manager – UAE & KSA at Endava, said, “Trust is the critical enabler of any AI strategy. The UAE’s clear national vision, its youthful and tech-savvy demographic, and its digital-first mindset are combining to give organisations a unique opportunity to innovate with confidence. While other regions remain cautious, weighed down by debates over job displacement, our research shows that businesses in the UAE can move forward with certainty, knowing their workforces are not only ready for AI, but actively embracing it.”

He added that organisations across the UAE and the wider Middle East should focus not only on AI investment, but on smart implementation. “This includes laying the right data foundations by modernising their core systems, integrating AI responsibly into operations, leveraging pre-built AI accelerators, and prioritising solutions that complement human potential rather than replace it. The UAE’s AI enthusiasm must be tempered by clear strategy, and outcome-driven efforts.

At Endava, we are proud to support regional governments and enterprises filtering through the AI buzz, to extract and incorporate those impactful use cases.

With a workforce this receptive and government vision this clear, this approach is helping position the UAE as a global reference point for AI done right.”

These findings come at a time when the UAE is rapidly cementing its position as a global AI leader, with several billion-dollar investments into AI infrastructure and innovation announced this year alone. This national ambition seems to be resonating with the public, nearly half of respondents believe the UAE is ahead of the rest of the world in AI adoption and everyday usage. When asked to rank global AI leaders, respondents placed the Middle East third, trailing only the United States and China.