AI Use Surges Among Frontline Workers: 93% Use It Weekly, 58% Save Eight Hours.
Dubai: Six in 10 frontline employees across the GCC believe AI agents could take on at least half of their current job responsibilities within the next three years.
AI is already deeply embedded in workplaces across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, with 93 per cent of frontline employees using AI at least several times a week, according to Boston Consulting Group’s latest AI at Work report.
Adoption is even higher among managers and senior leaders, at 95 per cent. This places the GCC alongside India among the world’s leading markets for workplace AI adoption and well ahead of the global frontline employee adoption rate of 74 per cent.
The impact is becoming increasingly visible in the amount of time employees are saving. Around 58 per cent of frontline workers in the GCC said AI saves them at least eight hours a week, while the figure rises to 67 per cent among managers and leaders.
Skills expected from workers are changing
High levels of AI adoption are also reshaping workplace expectations. Some 85 per cent of frontline employees said AI has changed the skills expected of them in their roles, highlighting how rapidly the technology is transforming the nature of work.
Among managers and leaders, the figure rises to 92 per cent.
“The GCC’s exceptional AI adoption rates reflect a workforce that has moved decisively beyond experimentation into real integration,” said Robert Xu, Managing Director and Partner at BCG X.
“What distinguishes the highest-performing organisations in this region is not simply their deployment of AI tools, but their deep investment in their people. Compared with other organisations in their cohort, GCC organisations that lead with AI have leaders who are personally invested in building their teams’ AI fluency. This is translating into tangible productivity gains and helping turn technological advantage into competitive edge,” he said.
Workers are also reporting positive changes in how they feel about their jobs. Some 69 per cent of frontline employees across the GCC said they experienced greater enjoyment at work after adopting AI, rising to 77 per cent among managers and leaders.
Xu added: “While this year’s GCC findings demonstrate AI’s ability to reduce toil and increase joy at work, leaders must anticipate the organisational shifts ahead by embedding comprehensive change management and redesigning workflows to fully harness AI’s potential.”
AI agents could take on more work
Expectations for AI agents are particularly high, with 60 per cent of frontline employees believing the technology could handle at least half of their current job responsibilities within the next three years.
The figure rises to 66 per cent among managers and senior leaders, highlighting growing expectations that AI agents will play a larger role in the workplace.
Despite this, concerns about AI-driven job losses remain relatively low. Around 28 per cent of frontline employees said they feared losing their jobs to AI, compared with 29 per cent of managers and leaders.
BCG said the use of AI agents in workplace workflows globally has more than doubled since 2025, although governance frameworks have not kept pace with the technology’s rapid adoption.
Workers are saving hours, but guidance remains limited
The report also highlights a growing gap between the time employees are saving through AI and the support they receive from employers on how to use that time effectively.
Globally, 42 per cent of frontline employees who regularly use AI said they save the equivalent of at least one full working day each week. However, 66 per cent said they receive limited or no guidance on how those recovered hours should be redirected.
According to BCG, more than half of these employees do not use the time saved for strategic work, suggesting that organisations may not yet be fully capitalising on the productivity gains created by AI.
“The promisingly rapid initial phase of AI adoption will only be sustained with deliberate leadership action,” said Rami Mourtada, Partner and Director at BCG.
“In the GCC, where adoption has notably accelerated, it is imperative to build the right core operating models and governance structures to transform individual productivity gains from AI into organisation-wide benefits,” he said.
Training remains a gap
Training remains a challenge globally, even as AI rapidly changes the skills expected of workers.
Only 36 per cent of respondents said they had received sufficient preparation, while 72 per cent of regular AI users acknowledged that expectations around their skills had changed significantly.
Communication from management is also limited. Just 33 per cent of frontline employees globally said their leadership communicates clearly about AI, while only 28 per cent reported strong alignment between what leaders say about the technology and how their organisations use it in practice
