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The pace of AI development is outstripping labour markets, governance systems, and societal adaptation, according to Alena Dique, Founder, ESG Middle East Insights.
She underlined that AI is no longer just a technology story about chips, data centres.
“The IMF has warned that around 40 percent of jobs globally - and up to 60 percent in advanced economies - will be affected by AI,” she said in an interview with Zawya Projects.
For the Middle East region, AI intersects with energy transition, demographic shifts, and economic diversification.
Dique pointed out that the UAE, for example, is prioritising basic AI literacy before advancing to more specialised upskilling, thereby positioning education as the primary safeguard against the risks and disruptions associated with AI adoption.
Excerpts from the interview:
At the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos, Artificial Intelligence (AI) dominated the agenda rather than sitting in the 'future technology' sessions. As an ESG advisor, what stood out to you?
This year’s WEF meeting in Davos brought together nearly 3,000 leaders from over 130 countries, including more than 800 CEOs and 60 heads of state. Behind the language of cooperation was a quieter urgency: AI is moving faster than societies, faster than labour markets, and faster than governance systems. I think AI today is more than just a technology story – it is now an ESG story because it will test societies as much as economies.
How significant is AI’s projected economic impact?
Estimates cited repeatedly at the forum suggest AI could contribute $15.7 trillion to global GDP by 2030 (PwC). However, this growth comes with disruption. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that around 40 percent of jobs globally - and up to 60 percent in advanced economies - will be affected by AI.
More bluntly, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, has argued that half of all entry-level white-collar jobs could disappear within one to five years as generative AI matures. In Davos corridors, this statistic landed less like a forecast and more like a deadline.
Capital has clearly backed AI, with billions of dollars flowing into projects worldwide. From an ESG perspective, how do you assess this surge in investments?
WEF has described this cycle as one of the fastest reallocations of capital in history, with over $600 billion in new AI-related investments announced or reaffirmed globally.
Corporate competition is certainly intensifying. OpenAI is reportedly in talks to raise up to $40 billion from partners including Microsoft, Nvidia, and Amazon, which would rank among the largest private capital raises ever recorded. This week, its rival Anthropic closed its own $30 billion Series G round, valuing them at $380 billion.
Meanwhile, governments are racing to secure chips, data centres, and talent pipelines, treating compute capacity as a strategic asset alongside energy and food security.
Yet this rush has revealed a paradox. Saudi Arabia’s erstwhile Minister of Investment, Khalid Al-Falih, noted at Davos that while everyone wants to build AI infrastructure, the power of AI lies in accessibility and diffusion. Diffusion is not just within economies that have to compete, but it has to be done globally.
The AI race, in other words, risks reproducing the very inequalities ESG frameworks were designed to address. The AI race, if poorly governed, could deepen global and domestic divides.
You highlighted earlier that AI will test societies as much as economies. Why is AI now an ESG issue?
ESG has traditionally measured carbon, labour practices, and governance structures. AI now cuts across all three.
- Environmental: Real-time emissions tracking, grid optimisation, and predictive climate modelling.
- Social: Expanded access to healthcare, education, and public services - while simultaneously threatening to hollow out entry-level jobs and widening skills gaps.
- Governance: AI automated compliance and risk detection - but also introduces opaque decision-making and algorithmic bias.
Davos made one thing clear: AI can accelerate sustainability or destabilise it. The difference lies in how it is governed.
In the region, AI has come a long way since the UAE set the pace by becoming the first country in the world to appoint a Minister of State for AI back in 2017. In the context of Davos, how do you see AI advancing here?
For the Middle East, the AI moment arrives at a strategic crossroads. The region is managing an energy transition, a demographic shift, and economic diversification. AI has become the multiplier.
For example, at Davos, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser framed AI as an operational necessity rather than a luxury where the energy sector is concerned, highlighting the importance of data quality. His emphasis on data highlights an often-missed point: intelligence without governance is noise. Data quality, ownership and security are becoming ESG risks in their own right.
Sovereign investors are equally explicit. Mubadala CEO Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak stated that AI is inevitable, and the priority is preparation and building the right pathway - not simply accelerating adoption. That pathway runs not through pilots or innovation labs, but through policy, education, and labour systems.
What is distinctive about the UAE’s AI strategy?
The UAE arrived in Davos not just with investment announcements, but with an institutional narrative. National disclosures indicate AI investments exceeded AED 543 billion ($147 billion) between 2024 and 2025, while plans are underway for a 5-gigawatt (GW) AI supercomputing campus in Abu Dhabi - the largest outside North America. Sovereign-backed MGX has earmarked nearly $100 billion for AI and digital infrastructure, and the national strategy targets AI contributing 20 percent of non-oil GDP by 2031.
However, the most consequential emphasis came from education. Sarah bint Yousif Al Amiri, UAE Minister of Education, stressed higher education needs to start infusing AI, beginning with foundational AI literacy before advanced upskilling. This sequencing matters. If AI will erase entry-level roles first, then education becomes the front line of ESG defense. Workforce preparedness is no longer a human resources issue; it is a social stability issue.
What is the ultimate test for AI in the ESG context?
I believe Davos exposed the AI dilemma or rather, the trilemma - Growth is accelerating, jobs are destabilising, capital is concentrating.
For the Middle East, and particularly the UAE, the challenge is not whether to adopt AI, but whether it can be implemented in a way that preserves social cohesion and institutional trust. The convergence of AI and ESG is now unavoidable. One measures value; the other defines it. I think countries that succeed will not be those with the fastest processors, but those with the strongest corporate-social contracts and clearest rules.
The story that began in Davos does not end in discussions or data centres. It unfolds in classrooms, regulatory institutions, and corporate communities. It is measured in policies, prepared in education, and proven in social cohesion. And that is where the real ESG intelligence test lies - in how we govern, educate, and empower for a future shaped by AI.
(Reporting by SA Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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