Dubai employers put AI skills on par with degrees in hiring

At the Ru’ya job fair in Dubai, UAE, employers said knowledge of AI technologies is increasingly weighed alongside traditional qualifications when selecting young candidates, The National reports. The shift has direct consequences for how young job seekers position themselves in the labour market and how institutions structure their recruitment pipelines. Students attending the event expect the ability to use AI to become a basic requirement across many professions in the future.

For employers, the economics are straightforward. Candidates who can operate AI tools effectively offer more productivity per hire, and companies are adjusting their screening accordingly. Mo Ali Yusuf, chief executive of financial company Fuze, framed the shift as a matter of baseline competency rather than specialisation. In his view, the ability to work with artificial intelligence will gradually be perceived the same way as the ability to use the internet or type on a keyboard. Most employees, he noted, do not necessarily need to become developers of AI models; what matters is applying the technology practically in their work.

That practical framing matters for businesses weighing training costs against hiring filters. Rather than demanding technical depth from every recruit, employers appear to be treating AI fluency as a productivity multiplier, one that raises the value of otherwise conventional qualifications.

Meanwhile, public sector employers are moving in the same direction and deploying the technology internally. Azza Al Marzouki, director of the human resources department at Dubai Municipality, said the institution offers vacancies in engineering, data analysis and AI. The municipality used AI in its own recruitment process at the fair: an AI agent screens applications and matches candidates’ qualifications and experience, while the final stage may be an AI-based interview. Al Marzouki clarified that AI skills are not yet mandatory for every position, but they represent an additional advantage for candidates, a signal that the premium is real but still discretionary.

On the supply side of the market, young candidates are already adapting. Sultan Al Teneiji, a 22-year-old school graduate seeking employment opportunities, including in the public sector, believes that knowledge of AI gives young job seekers an advantage. According to him, the ability to formulate effective prompts and interact with AI agents will become increasingly important. He uses ChatGPT and Gemini, and has already put the tools to commercial use, creating a website for selling goods with the help of AI. For an entry-level candidate, that kind of self-directed capability functions as a differentiator in a competitive hiring market.

Younger students are treating AI proficiency as career infrastructure. Hanin Al Madani, a 17-year-old student at Dubai’s Al Raya Girls Cycle School, said that mastering AI is an important part of career preparation. She took part in a space competition during the fair and spoke about her interest in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, fields where demand for practical AI competence is likely to keep growing.

Taken together, the signals from the fair suggest a labour market in transition. Employers are not yet making AI skills a hard requirement across the board, but they are rewarding them, and some, such as Dubai Municipality, are embedding AI directly into how they evaluate and select candidates. For job seekers, the calculus is becoming clear: candidates who can demonstrate practical command of AI tools, from prompt formulation to working with AI agents, are positioning themselves ahead of peers with comparable traditional credentials. For employers, the technology offers a way to screen more efficiently and to identify candidates whose productivity extends beyond their formal qualifications. The expectation voiced by students at the event, that AI ability will become a baseline requirement for many professions, points to where both sides of the market appear to be heading.