👋 Welcome back,
For UAE businesses, AI adoption is broad but lacking in depth. That’s according to a new study from AWS and the UAE Artificial Intelligence Office. Regulation, funding and a skills gap are holding companies back beyond basic AI applications. That AI skills gap is good news for job hunting specialists but comes with a warning.
We explain more below.
GULF AI NEWS
1. Many UAE businesses aren’t using AI at a transformative level: Less than one third of companies uses AI at an advanced level. 47% of firms have committed only to basic use cases. Consider this your signal to take the initiative and own something meaningful.
2. UAE firms want technical specialists in Q4: As 2026 closes, hiring will slow and concentrate on those who can show immediate business value, according to Innovations Global. Skills in transformation, finance, sales, and other specialist functions are the priority as the market becomes more selective in the short-term. Now’s the time to emphasise measurable results in your application.
3. ADNOC-backed AIQ crosses borders: The Abu Dhabi-based AI firm signed a deal to deploy 1 million cameras to an unnamed oil and gas conglomerate in India. The tech will reportedly be used across refineries, fuel stations and stores to read licence plates. Worth keeping an eye on AIQ for new roles: the firm also expanded into Oman this May.
WHAT HAPPENED GLOBALLY
1. Robots can do manual labor, but the economics don’t make sense: Anthropic released a robot exposure index measuring how well machines complete tasks. Although robots can do “most physical work tasks today”, they’re “cost-competitive” for just 0.3% of jobs. In other words, it mostly doesn’t make financial sense to automate labor tasks (for now).
2. Federal Trade Commission to investigate AI giants: As commentary on AI’s public threat rumbles on, the FTC will now investigate OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI firms over the potential dangers posed by their models. The news comes as the US treads a fine line between managing the pace of growth without throttling its global AI competitiveness.
3. A fix for the rogue agent problem? After OpenAI’s agents broke containment and caused havoc, Nvidia has released its Open Agent Safety Platform. The open software tool helps organizations to better secure and govern AI agents as they execute more sophisticated tasks.
TOP AI JOBS
In-demand AI jobs live on bravou.io this week
🇸🇦 Staff AI Researcher, Lenovo 📍 Riyadh
🇴🇲 Senior AI Engineer, ESBAAR 📍 Muscat
🇦🇪 Data Scientist, Emirates Islamic Bank 📍 Dubai
🇦🇪 Principal AI Engineer, Edge Group 📍Abu Dhabi
🇦🇪 Machine Learning Operations Engineer - Database Marketing, Scale AI, 📍Ras Al Khaimah
THE DEBATE
As we mentioned above: there’s a skills gap in the UAE, according to reports. Upskilling can’t keep up with demand from companies for broader automation. Good news for you, right? Mostly. Although being a specialist brings many advantages, there are overlooked risks to watch closely.
Our latest article outlines these risks and provides a helpful tool to understand how exposed you are to the threat and what action you could take.
Teaser: now’s the time to be gathering proof of your value.
CHANNELS TO FOLLOW
✍🏼 Andrewng.org, Personal blog: If you’re in AI, you’ll likely have encountered Andrew Ng. The co-founder and lead of Google Brain (the deep learning AI research team), regularly shares his POV on hot AI conversations over on his personal blog. A good regular check-in spot to get an expert’s view among the noise.
📖 One Useful Thing, Substack: The musings of Ethan Mollick, professor at the University of Pennsylvania, provide a refreshingly rounded and realistic take on how AI is impacting work and education.
📖 AI Snake Oil, Substack: Commentary for the natural sceptics and anyone who fears they’ve drunk the AI Kool-Aid. This Substack from Arvind Narayanan is a great counterweight to the many biased voices in the space.
THE FINAL WORD
This year, Google shut down its handy AI interview prep product, Interview Warmup. The tool let you answer practice questions via voice-to-text, before the machine transcribed your answers and gave feedback on the spot, including insight to your speech patterns.
A sad loss for some, but it’s possible to replicate a similar function using Claude’s Voice mode, which is available on the free plan (this is NOT an ad). Here’s how:
1. Create a new chat, paste in the job spec and your CV, and name the company
2. Give Claude a brief, such as: “you are the hiring manager interviewing me for this role. Ask eight questions, one at a time. Don't coach me, don't tell me how I did, don't break character. If I give a vague answer, push back.”
3. Switch to voice mode.
4. Answer the questions as you would in a real-world setting. Don’t be tempted to half answer because it’s a mock interview. Let the tool give you feedback.
5. End voice mode, then go back to text and ask for feedback. Ask Claude to tell you what was missing, which claims aren’t backed up on your CV, and where answers were vague or unclear.
Trial the process above and fine tune the approach as needed.
Other AI interview copilot tools are also available which feed you answers during actual interviews in real-time. We don’t recommend using these tools.
Some employers consider them cheating, and they’ll blunt your ability to think quickly and answer questions authentically.
💻 Search all open AI roles on Bravou today
📚 Check out the Bravou Resources page for more job search guidance and insights