Adoption among managers and leaders across the region is even higher at 95 per cent, according to regional findings from BCG’s fourth annual AI at Work report, Strategy Matters More Than Tools, covering the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.
The GCC rate for frontline workers is well above the global average of 74 per cent and places the region alongside India among the strongest adopters of workplace AI. BCG defines frontline employees in the survey as individual white-collar workers without managerial responsibilities.
The regional findings also point to significant reported productivity gains. Fifty-eight per cent of frontline employees in the four GCC markets said AI saves them at least eight hours a week, equivalent to a full working day, while 67 per cent of managers and leaders reported the same level of time saving.
The survey found that AI is changing expectations around skills as well as day-to-day productivity. Some 85 per cent of GCC frontline employees said the technology had fundamentally changed the skills expected of them in their roles, compared with 92 per cent of managers and leaders.
Workers also expect AI agents to take on a larger share of their responsibilities. Sixty per cent of frontline staff and 66 per cent of managers and leaders in the GCC believe AI agents could perform at least half of their current job responsibilities within the next three years.
Despite those expectations, fear of outright job loss remains comparatively contained. BCG said 28 per cent of frontline employees and 29 per cent of managers and leaders in the region expressed concern that AI could cost them their positions.
Robert Xu, managing director and partner at BCG X, said the region’s adoption rates showed that workers had moved beyond experimenting with AI towards integrating it into everyday work. He said the strongest organisations were distinguished not merely by deploying tools but by investing in employees and building AI fluency.
The research was conducted by BCG X, the firm’s technology build and design unit.
The findings form part of BCG’s global survey of 11,749 workers across 14 markets and a broad range of industries. Globally, regular AI use among frontline employees rose to 74 per cent, up 23 percentage points year on year, showing a sharp expansion in adoption outside management ranks.
BCG’s wider survey found that 42 per cent of regular frontline AI users globally save at least one full working day each week. Yet 66 per cent of those reporting time savings said they receive limited or no guidance on what to do with the additional time, highlighting a gap between individual efficiency and measurable organisational value.
That gap is central to the report’s argument that strategy matters more than access to better tools. BCG found that clear strategic direction raised the likelihood of measurable business impact by 25 percentage points, while improving tools without broader redesign added about five points.
Companies redesigning workflows also recorded stronger outcomes. Respondents in those organisations were 24 percentage points more likely to report measurable business improvement, 22 points more likely to save at least a full day each week and 20 points more likely to report increased job satisfaction.
Across the global sample, 72 per cent of respondents said AI had considerably changed the skills expected in their jobs, while 47 per cent said they now spend more time managing and directing AI than performing the work themselves.
The survey also found growing use of AI agents. Thirty per cent of respondents said agents were already integrated into workflows, more than double the 13 per cent recorded a year earlier, while 61 per cent believed agents could perform at least half of their job within three years.
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