Companies in the UAE and other Gulf countries are also increasingly deploying AI to automate many roles
As AI-driven automation increasingly takes over jobs, certain countries will be hit harder than others, especially those with large populations.
In the Middle East region, the top three nations that will be hit hardest by artificial intelligence (AI) job automation are Iran, Jordan and Egypt. In the Asia region, workers in Bhutan, Pakistan and India will bear the brunt of increased automation of roles, according to data sourced by bizreport from International Labour Organisation and Willrobotstakemyjob website.
This requires these countries to upskill their workforce for new jobs and roles that are changing fast with the arrival of new-age technologies.
The US bank Goldman Sachs has projected that AI would render 300 million workers jobless. While bizreport estimated that 64 per cent of the worldwide workforce is at risk of AI automation.
Companies in the UAE and other Gulf countries are also increasingly deploying AI to automate many roles.
“Solutions that offer end-to-end visibility and automation are the ones most in demand,” says Osama Al-Zoubi, CTO, Cisco Middle East and Africa.
“Today, the network is both the tool for digital transformation and the main means of keeping the lights on across several industries in the Middle East. To align with the region’s evolving needs, and shifting IT priorities - security, agility and business performance have overtaken cost and network management as the key concerns for IT teams,” he said.
Saudi Arabia’s Bank Al Jazira alone is said to have saved over 60,000 hours of manual work deploying cloud-native AI system Automation Anywhere to improve cost efficiency.
“We have benefited from smart automation to enhance our operational efficiency while enabling our employees to focus on delivering greater value to customers. The journey of digital expansion of our bank has already been supported by the internal State authorities, for complying with all regulatory requirements,” Faisal Al Rashoudi, head of automation and robotics, Bank AlJazira.
“Banks are increasingly turning towards intelligent automation to deal with multiple complexities ranging from changing regulations to new digital security threats,” said Dinesh Chandra, vice-president, Middle East, Automation Anywhere.
Globally, Zambia, Bhutan, Angola, Armenia and Pakistan would be the most affected nations by AI automation while least affected are Singapore, Panama, Slovakia, Batswana and Trinidad and Tobago according to data sourced by bizreport from International Labour Organisation and Willrobotstakemyjob website.
It is estimated that 64 per cent of the worldwide workforce is at risk of AI automation.
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Waheed Abbas is Assistant Editor, covering real estate, aviation and other business stories that directly affect the lives of UAE consumers. He frequently reports human interest stories, too.