Artificial Intelligence and Employment Futures for the Arab Region

Drawing on strategic foresight, it explores likely shifts in employment by sector and occupation, highlights distributional impacts across age groups and gender, and identifies risks of deepening exclusion for groups such as older workers, persons with disabilities, migrants and refugees.

The report also outlines skills and human-capital priorities—ranging from baseline AI literacy to advanced technical and governance capabilities—and presents alternative future scenarios to help policymakers and social partners stress-test choices and craft resilient, inclusive policy responses.

This publication was developed under a UN-to-UN cooperation agreement, with the ILO supporting ESCWA to deliver a concise, policy-oriented report offering actionable recommendations to help Arab governments prepare for AI-driven labour market transformations in line with the 2030 Agenda and relevant SDGs