The Emirates Group: AI will not replace most jobs outright, but people who learn to use technology effectively will replace those who don’t

Integrating new technology into an organization is no mean feat – but as the workforce is evolving at a rapid rate, businesses need to keep up with the pace of change.

This is not only to ensure that their workforce is not falling behind competition, but to also make sure the technology is being leveraged in the most efficient way.

One business that is at the forefront of finding this balance is the Emirates Group. 

To find out more, UNLEASH spoke exclusively to Oliver Grohmann, the company’s Executive Vice President Human Resources, to discuss how the premium airline is leveraging AI – from encouraging its integration among employees, to using it to increase time to hire, and everything in between.

Connecting data with business insights

As a premium brand, the Emirates Group takes pride in delivering exceptional products and services that reflect the strength of its brand. To ensure this continues, the business strives to be at the forefront of innovation, by leveraging technology and AI. 

Grohmann, however, expresses the importance of practicing this in the ‘right’ way, not only to protect Emirates Group brand, but to also ensure that only responsible risks are taken. 

“We are probably overly cautious to always keep a human touch, but it’s a fine line,” he explains.

“We encourage our leaders and employees to leverage technology all over the company with the right speeds, the right challenging questions and then with the right level of implementation.”

The business is also investing heavily in building employee’s digital confidence, for example, by launching a new Gen AI learning series – Get Future-Ready – a six-part program designed to help employees understand and embrace the power of AI. 

Additionally, dedicated sessions are provided for leaders and teams to help them explore how AI can enhance their roles, and AI Champions are being identified across the organization to drive innovation and knowledge sharing from within. 

This raises the important question: While AI and innovation are accelerating, what does this actually look like in practice?

Grohmann suggests: “In the past, HR as a function often relied on intuition – because the data simply wasn’t there. Today, that’s changed dramatically. 

“Over the last 18 to 24 months, we’ve built a suite of powerful dashboards that give us real-time insights across recruitment, onboarding, training, and forecasting. 

“These tools are transforming how we attract, onboard, and develop our people – helping leaders see talent pipelines, identify skill gaps, and plan ahead with confidence. 

“Whether it’s forecasting future workforce needs, tracking new joiners’ experience, or monitoring learning progress, we can now make informed decisions that help us retain and grow our talent.”

The Emirates Group has therefore ensured that data has become more than just numbers, but rather, it’s seen as a lens that helps the business ‘see’ its people more clearly, while acting faster, and shaping a workplace to help people thrive. 

“We are still on a journey,” Grohmann adds. “I see that people are not always feeling comfortable using data – and are not always able to reach the data. 

“What is always important is that you connect data with business insights. If you look at the dashboard but you don’t know the business or the background needed, you will not get anything out of the data.”

Improving hiring with technology

The Emirates Group has also leveraged AI to assist with finding recruiting and onboarding solutions by implementing an automated talent matching function – both for external candidates who upload their profiles and for internal vacancies.  

Grohmann explains that this is now used for internal talent mobility, so when employees are interested in taking on another role within the company, they can leverage the talent matching capability. 

“This is still a work in progress,” he shares, “but we started a few months ago and can already see the benefits and what measurable impact it has on reducing time to hire and improving the quality of hires. 

We want efficiencies – not to reduce people, but to spend time with more qualitative processes, with leadership conversations, talent conversations, and then more value-added tasks. 

“I think it’s really important to have robust processes, because there is a high importance on the level that we recruit at and how we retain the talent we have. We need to make sure we have the right values, and to see whether we can improve these processes over time. We aim for perfection, but I don’t want to rush it.”

As Grohmann mentioned at the beginning of the conversation with UNLEASH, Emirates Group is committed to maintaining its premium reputation by adopting technology thoughtfully, which is why ensuring AI is used ethically is a top priority. 

Part of this is by keeping humans in the loop. 

Last year, Grohmann explains that Emirates Group received 3.7 million applications – AI technology is used to sort through and manage this number into a shortlist, as it’s “not possible” with just human beings.

However, he does raise concerns that companies might miss out on some great people who don’t fit the algorithm.

“My biggest concern is that there’s one single employee who would deserve to be shortlisted but will be dropped out,” he shares. “I receive many questions through LinkedIn where people say that they applied numerous times, but I never got through.  

“I frequently discuss that with my recruiting team, because hopefully, we are making the right decisions. But how can we be sure? So, I want clear guardrails.”

To better manage this, Grohmann explains that there are defined frameworks and policies to minimize bias. For example, humans check samples of applicants to make sure that humans are still assessing the decisions and to monitor that the right choices are being made. 

This, Grohmann states, gives confidence to candidates, employees, and managers, by demonstrating that the business is hiring in an ethical and appropriate way. 

Consciously integrating AI into the workforce

As with all of these changes, leaders have to be mindful of how they’re being received by employees and the ways in which they are impacting the business.

Grohmann describes this as a “push-and-pull dynamic,” where people have to be encouraged to embrace technology on one hand, but they also can’t be forced to do so, either. 

“You need to establish an ecosystem where training and education in AI enables and excites employees to be part of the future of technology that will inevitably be embedded in our business,” he advises. “Part of this is listening to their concerns and trying to understand why people may not be using the data.  

“It’s important to listen and to explain that AI or tech will not replace jobs, but that your job will be replaced by somebody who knows how to use and leverage technology better. 

“So if I’m somebody who doesn’t use tech and AI, my job might be taken over by another human being who is more technologically aware.”

As a result, Grohmann expresses that growth and upskilling are top of the agenda for the Emirates Group in the coming years, with plans to grow its workforce by thousands of people. 

He concludes: “To manage this growth is a super exciting project, but it’s also a very heavy weight on our shoulders, because we have to deliver the people side of the business. 

We can’t fly aircraft or serve our customers without the right employees. So, managing the growth and helping the organization and human beings in our organization to grow with the airline and with the company is the number one objective.”

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