Ameca, a humanoid robot, smiled and blinked at the crowd at Dubai AI Week 2025, a celebration of all things artificial intelligence. Landmark announcements marked the event, including a $545 million hyperscale data center to supply Microsoft and Dubai’s first PhD program in AI.
AI engineer Nair, 29, felt inspired. Since moving to the United Arab Emirates last October from Kerala, India, she had applied to hundreds of entry-level jobs and faced rejections, scams and exploitative offers. Rest of World is not revealing her first name to protect her identity.
Now she remembered why she’d emigrated. “Dubai is emerging as a global AI hub,” she told Rest of World. “It was fascinating to see how companies are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.”
Tech workers like Nair are moving to the UAE, attracted by a Golden Visa program that gives 10 years of residency to skilled professionals, no taxes, high salaries and the ease of setting up business, recruiters and tech professionals told Rest of World.
“The UAE ranks second only to the U.S. in attracting top AI talent, with many of these experts now calling the UAE home,” Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, UAE’s Minister of Economy, said last year.
The UAE has positioned itself as the U.S.’ tech ally. During President Donald Trump’s recent visit, it secured access to 500,000 of the most advanced Nvidia chips, critical for AI development. It also announced plans to build the largest AI campus outside the U.S. in collaboration with American tech companies. And last year, Microsoft and Emirati AI firm G42 announced they are working together to create a “skilled and diverse AI workforce.”
Amar Diwakar/Rest of World
The UAE’s laser-sharp focus on AI makes it attractive for tech workers at a time when opportunities are shrinking in the West. More than 50,000 tech workers, mostly mid-level managers and developers, have been laid off in the U.S. this year from about 100 companies, according to the layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi. There are also fewer openings for roles such as software developers, and many tech workers fear the Trump government’s stringent immigration policies. Venture capital investment in startups, too, has cooled in the West.
But beneath the UAE’s sheen of opportunity, the job market can pose challenges for tech workers depending on where they’re from, workers and recruiters told Rest of World. Senior tech talent from the West are often headhunted for top positions at high salaries. Experienced AI experts from South Asia and Ukraine fill the lower ranks, for lower pay.
And young talent like Nair fall in a gray area of AI professionals who struggle to get hired. With a Master’s in electronics engineering and specialization in AI hardware from an Indian college and one year of work experience, she has been job-hunting for months.
“You get automatic rejections,” she told Rest of World. “Companies want candidates with four to five years of experience for entry-level roles, or they hire through referrals.”
This is not due to a dearth of jobs. Dubai has more than 800 AI firms, most of them startups, according to the Dubai Center for Artificial Intelligence. Abu Dhabi has over 400 AI companies. Most of them plan to recruit this year.
But the UAE also has an “abundance” of tech workers, according to a 2024 talent report by the UAE Ministry of Economy and immigration law firm Fragomen. Most of these workers are not qualified for specialized AI roles, the report said.
About 95% of 50,000 companies surveyed in the report said they hired tech professionals from outside the Middle East.
“There’s not enough domestic university talent so we recruit candidates from India and Ukraine,” Vahid Haghzare, director of SVA Recruitment based in Dubai, told Rest of World.
The data and AI combination here is hot. They have the money to execute fast.
The UAE is a “global migration node,” Froilan Malit Jr., a visiting scholar at American University in Dubai and an expert on migration to the Middle East, told Rest of World. It is a transit space for people from developing countries to gain experience before moving West, while Western professionals can leverage their expertise for higher pay and long-term residency in the UAE, he said.
Western professionals are attracted by Dubai’s lifestyle perks, while Asian and Muslim tech workers appreciate a culture that’s a mix of East and West, Malit Jr. said. “It’s a win-win: tax-free income, top schools, security, and cosmopolitan living.”
Workers get different salaries based on their years of experience, and also where they are from, he said. Workers from developing nations experience a “citizenship penalty” and command a lower salary in the UAE than their western counterparts, Malit Jr. said.
“That’s what triggers a lot of tech workers from the Global South to move to the West, and then return [to the UAE] with a new passport,” he said.
Jarkko Moilanen, head of data products at the Abu Dhabi Department for Government Enablement, which oversees the city’s digital transformation, moved to the UAE in 2022 from Finland after being recruited as one of 200 global experts to help drive the effort.
“I needed a change,” said the 50-year-old AI professional, who has helmed transformations at various tech companies in Finland. A year later, he decided to stay long-term in the UAE and applied for a Golden Visa.
The nation has made relocation relatively frictionless, especially for AI-related specialists, developers and entrepreneurs. Dubai had issued an estimated 158,000 Golden Visas by 2023.
Moilanen said that he is incentivized to stay in the UAE rather than go back to Europe, which he perceives as being in economic decline. In contrast, Abu Dhabi has gone all in on AI, and plans to become the world’s first Ai-Native government, laying the groundwork to fully automate and digitize government processes.
Moilanen said that he has also received multiple job offers from recruiters in Saudi Arabia, but has turned them down as he hopes to launch an AI and data business in the UAE.
“The data and AI combination here is hot. They have the money to execute fast,” he said.
AI startups are thriving in the UAE, with support from funds like Hub71, an Abu Dhabi-based incubator. In Dubai, Sandbox, funded by Oraseya Capital, supports existing startups, while the Dubai Future Accelerators helps companies collaborate with the government.
You get automatic rejections. Companies want candidates with four to five years of experience for entry-level roles.
Entrepreneur Nidhima Kohli, originally from Luxembourg, recently launched her startup, The AI Accelerator, an online course meant to help entrepreneurs and executives use AI tools to improve productivity. She migrated to Dubai in 2022 and received a Golden Visa the following year.
“I’ve lived in London, Paris, and the U.S., but never felt as safe as in Dubai. It is international, people are approachable and happy to connect with you,” she told Rest of World.
She said she appreciates the ease of networking and setting up a business in the UAE. “The UAE is putting money where its mouth is. They want to grow and not stifle innovation.”
But for less experienced workers from South Asia, like Nair, hurdles persist. She has seen many scam jobs on LinkedIn, including a recruiter who asked her to pay $1,000 for a certification course. She has also received exploitative offers. One company offered her 3,000 dirhams ($816) per month, much below market rate. Another asked her to work seven days a week, without paid leave or sick days.
Despite all the setbacks, Nair remains hopeful for the road ahead. “I’m excited about the opportunities to grow, learn, and make a meaningful impact here.”
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