Gulf AI investment may not pay off unless it reaches frontline workers, says Staffbase

Governments and businesses across the Gulf are investing heavily in AI and digital transformation, but much of the return depends on whether it reaches the airline crew member, hotel supervisor or warehouse team lead in the middle of a shift.

A new Forrester Consulting study commissioned by Staffbase shows what is at stake when it does not. Among frontline workers and managers surveyed in USA, 48% said information gaps lowered productivity, 44% said they raised the risk of errors or missed deadlines, and only 23% felt fully supported by the information and tools available to them.

Conor Duffy, Regional Leader, Middle East at Staffbase, said, "That makes adoption the real test, because it is one thing to launch a platform at head office and quite another to make sure that a cabin crew member or store manager, minutes before a shift, can find what they need and trust that it is right."

Key highlights from the press release:

• Frontline-heavy sectors sit at the centre of Gulf growth, from logistics and tourism to healthcare, with teams working across sites, shifts and languages
• More than half of respondents receive critical company information across six or more channels, and 35% meet conflicting or outdated information a few times a week or more
• 83% said a single app bringing together work activities and information would have a high impact on their ability to do their jobs
• Staffbase recommends designing for the hardest-to-reach employee first and governing the knowledge AI draws on before rolling it out