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Artificial intelligence is no longer a future concept for organisations in the Middle East. Across the UAE and KSA, HR and L&D leaders are being asked to move faster, build new capabilities, and help their organisations realise real value from AI investments, not just experimentation.
Recent insights from The Josh Bersin Company, People Management in the Age of AI: The Rise of the Supermanager, highlight a critical shift now taking place inside organisations. Drawing on in-depth research and real-world organisational data, the report explores how work, leadership, and management are being reshaped as AI becomes embedded into everyday roles.
As AI becomes embedded across industries, two roles are emerging as central to performance and growth:
Superworkers are individuals who use AI to lift their output, creativity and capability. Supermanagers are leaders who understand how to orchestrate the relationship between people and intelligent tools.
Together, these roles are reshaping how organisations approach productivity, leadership, and growth. The five themes below highlight what forward-thinking organisations are doing differently and what leaders in the region can learn from them.
The AI productivity and skills gap is widening. While technology advances rapidly, many teams lack the skills or confidence to use these tools to their full potential. This gap explains why so many CEOs invest in AI yet struggle to see meaningful productivity gains.
Traditional management approaches do not solve this. Telling teams to be more efficient or waiting for IT to deliver the perfect solution is too slow. Supermanagers take a different approach. They guide their teams through experimentation, encourage testing and learning, and normalise curiosity over perfection.
Pacesetter organisations invest heavily in practical enablement, not just systems. They understand that capability building is what turns AI from a cost centre into a performance engine. Across the UAE and KSA, leading organisations are doing exactly this through structured learning pathways, AI familiarisation workshops and technology enabled learning experiences that build confidence.
When teams integrate AI into their daily flow of work, productivity rises naturally. The real transformation comes from redesigning processes and workflows, so AI removes friction and elevates performance.
The role of management is evolving again, this time driven by the Intelligence Age. Managers are no longer simply coordinators of work or guardians of process. They are enablers who help their teams navigate new tools, explore new ways of working and use AI to focus on higher value tasks.
Supermanagers excel because they combine human centred leadership with technology fluency. They use AI powered tools to strengthen decision making, coach more effectively and gain insights into team capability. Just as importantly, they create psychological safety so teams can experiment without fear of failure.
This shift is highly relevant in the Middle East, where leadership expectations are rising as organisations scale and transform. Many companies are now investing in leadership development programmes, AI-readiness workshops and AI based team activities that help managers build both confidence and competence with AI.
The most effective leaders in the AI era guide transformation at the team level, building trust while helping people navigate change without losing sight of human connection.
A key difference between pacesetters and average organisations lies in how they view AI. While some still see it primarily as a cost-reduction tool, others use it to drive growth.
They apply AI to create new revenue opportunities, personalise experiences, and redesign services. This mindset aligns closely with what many organisations in the GCC are prioritising today. AI is increasingly being used to elevate customer experience, strengthen leadership, and build future-ready capability.
When AI frees teams from routine work, people can focus on strategic thinking, problem solving, and collaboration. That is where real value is created. Biz Group’s LearningJourneys™ combine structured learning, coaching, and reinforcement to help organisations adopt this growth mindset.
AI becomes transformative only when it amplifies human capability.
High talent density is emerging as one of the strongest predictors of organisational performance. Rather than hiring more people, pacesetters invest in elevating the skills, adaptability and impact of the people they already have.
This is particularly relevant in fast growing Middle East markets, where organisations must scale capability quickly to meet ambitious growth plans. Skills-first hiring, targeted capability development and internal mobility all help build stronger teams without expanding headcount unnecessarily.
In the region, many organisations are adopting leadership learning journeys, continuous development programmes and next-generation learning technologies to keep their workforce future ready. The outcome is a confident, capable team that can move with the pace of change. When people feel supported to develop their skills and apply them in meaningful ways, organisations gain resilience and adaptability.
Traditional change management no longer holds up in an AI-driven world. With constant and unpredictable shifts, change must be continuous, not episodic. This is where change agility comes in: organisations that succeed encourage experimentation, reduce friction, and help teams build confidence with new tools and ways of working, treating change as something to practise rather than resist.
This mindset is becoming a priority in the region. Many Middle East organisations are adopting innovation labs, immersive learning experiences and AI-familiarisation activities that help people feel more comfortable navigating uncertainty. These approaches reduce fear, build psychological safety and encourage more proactive problem solving.
Biz Group’s Virtual Reality Training solutions provide immersive environments where teams can practise decision making, problem solving and leadership under changing conditions, perfect preparation for a world defined by continuous transformation.
Leaders are central to this. They remove barriers, model adaptability and help teams see possibilities rather than threats. They provide clarity in uncertainty and support teams with the tools, skills and guidance needed to move forward. Change agility creates organisations that are not just prepared for transformation but capable of driving it.
AI adoption is reshaping how value is created, but sustained performance will continue to come from people. The rise of Superworkers and Supermanagers highlights the need for leaders who combine human-centred judgement with technology fluency, supported by teams confident using AI in their everyday work.
Success now depends on progress across six connected areas: a growth-driven AI strategy, continuous innovation, redesigned workflows, strong talent density, change agility, and an HR model built on skills and intelligent tools. The real challenge is turning insight into action, by building the capabilities, structures, and confidence leaders and teams need to navigate ongoing change at scale. Across the Middle East, Biz Group supports HR and L&D leaders in building the capabilities, structures, and confidence needed to navigate ongoing change at scale.
A core part of this journey is Galileo. Powered by research from The Josh Bersin Company, Galileo goes beyond access to insight. It acts as an always-on HR expert, helping organisations interpret the latest thinking on people, work, and AI, and apply it in ways that make sense for their context.
As the exclusive Middle East partner of The Josh Bersin Company, Biz Group combines this intelligence with practical learning solutions to help organisations adopt AI in a way that is human-centred, scalable, and sustainable.
If you are looking to move from AI awareness to real adoption, and to build leaders and teams ready for what comes next, reach out to us to explore how Galileo can support your organisation.
