UAE jobs in 2027: Look beyond salary and benefits, employers told as hiring shifts

After a year of regional uncertainty and rapid economic change, UAE employers planning for 2027 will need to look beyond pay and benefits, according to an expert.

Nishant Mahajan, Partner, People and Investments, Marsh Middle East and Africa, said employers should pay closer attention to job security, wellbeing, career opportunities and flexibility alongside traditional compensation and perks.

“Clear communication and an honest attempt to bring your employees with you on this change journey, will play a significant part in separating the winners from the losers in the medium-term,” Mahajan told Khaleej Times.

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At the same time, companies are rethinking how they build their workforces, moving away from simply adding headcount towards redesigning jobs, redeploying existing talent and using technology to make businesses more resilient when conditions change.

The pressures driving the shift are not new. Talent scarcity, rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and the need to find greater efficiencies were already weighing on employers at the start of 2026.

Marsh’s Global Talent Trends 2026 research found that 62 per cent of Middle East business leaders cited talent scarcity as a concern, compared with 54 per cent globally.

The research suggests employees were already placing significant value on career relevance and skills development even before the uncertainty of 2026.

Nishant Mahajan, Partner, People and Investments, Marsh Middle East and AfricaIts still too early to tell how AI impact will manifest itself into creation or destruction of jobs and employment, especially given the pace at which AI capabilities are advancing, but there should be no doubt that the impact will be widespread and material.

According to its Middle East findings, 64 per cent of employees said they would trade a 10 per cent pay rise for opportunities to develop AI and digital skills, while 74 per cent of HR leaders identified employee experience and the employee value proposition as a top priority.

The research was conducted before the regional conflict and therefore cannot be used to show that employee expectations changed as a direct result of the events of 2026. Instead, it provides a baseline of the pressures and priorities already shaping workplaces before conditions became more uncertain.

The shift does not necessarily translate into a hiring push in 2027. Mahajan said labour-market data suggests conditions have improved from the volatility earlier in 2026, but employers remain selective.

From a workforce strategy perspective, companies are increasingly focusing on the capabilities they need rather than simply expanding overall headcount.

“That is also why a cautious hiring market can coexist with talent scarcity,” he said. “An organisation may be reluctant to add general headcount while still competing intensely for a relatively small pool of people with particular capabilities.”

Among companies further along in reshaping their talent strategies, headcount investment is being prioritised in areas including:

“So the market is not simply expanding or contracting. It is becoming more selective about where talent adds the most value,” Mahajan said.

This also means companies cannot assume that every new capability has to be brought in through external recruitment. Reskilling and redeploying existing employees are becoming an increasingly important part of the equation.

AI is one of the biggest forces behind that rethink.

Rather than simply providing employees with AI tools, Mahajan said employers should examine individual jobs and workflows to determine which tasks should remain with people, which can be AI-assisted and which can safely be automated.

Mahajan gave examples of how that could work across different functions:

Customer service: AI could handle initial triage, summarise customer histories and propose responses, while employees focus on complex cases and relationship management.

Finance: Parts of reconciliation, reporting and analysis could be automated, allowing professionals to spend more time on scenarios, judgement and decision support.

HR: AI could support workforce analytics, skills matching and administrative processes, while people remain responsible for sensitive talent, capability and managerial decisions.

He said AI is already taking on aspects of work that are administrative or repetitive, as well as some research, diagnostic and analytical tasks.

But the technology is simultaneously creating new responsibilities around validating AI output, governance and risk management.

Marsh’s Middle East research illustrates the tension employees themselves are experiencing. Eighty-three per cent said AI makes them more productive and 74 per cent expected it to improve jobs. At the same time, 43 per cent feared job loss.

AI skills no longer just for tech workers

Mahajan said the strongest employee profile for 2027 is likely to combine expertise in a particular field with AI fluency and human judgement.

As technology takes on more routine work, capabilities including judgement, creativity, risk management, empathy and accountability could become more important.

“AI fluency should increasingly be viewed less as a specialist technology skill and more as a capability that cuts across functions,” he said.

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