Abu Dhabi HR chief joins HR Tech MENA Summit 2026 on AI and workforce skills

Abu Dhabi Government Academy CEO Dr. Amna Al Mahri will speak at HR Tech MENA Summit 2026 in Dubai on Sept. 9-10, joining the opening sessions on sovereign workforce strategy and AI’s role in public-sector skills planning. The event will focus on moving HR from training administration to real-time skills forecasting and evidence-based workforce decisions.

Why it matters: - Dr. Amna Al Mahri is positioning government HR around AI-driven skills forecasting, not just training tracking. - The approach matters because Abu Dhabi is using AI to build a more self-sufficient talent pipeline across government. - The summit is framing AI as a practical tool for workforce execution, not a concept stage discussion.

What happened: - The 12th HR Tech MENA Summit 2026 will take place on 9-10 September 2026 at Waldorf Astoria Dubai Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. - The summit theme is “Era of Execution: Where AI Becomes More Human.” - Dr. Amna Al Mahri, executive director of Abu Dhabi Government Academy under the Abu Dhabi Government Empowerment Department, will join the opening sessions. - She will take part on day one in a panel titled “Sovereign Workforce Ecosystem: Building a Self-Sufficient Talent Nation.” - More information is available through the event registration page.

The details: - Dr. Al Mahri said HR technology has historically focused on training delivery and completion tracking. - She argued the next shift is to identify, almost in real time, the gap between the skills an organization has and the skills it needs. - Abu Dhabi Government Academy has embedded AI into its learning platform, TamooH, to assess employee capabilities, identify skills gaps and personalize development paths. - More than 20,000 government employees have been upskilled in AI so far. - Dr. Al Mahri said the goal is to build a workforce with advanced AI capabilities, not just one that uses AI-enabled tools. - She said the model is moving workforce decisions from intuition to evidence. - Abu Dhabi is doing this work across 53 government entities at the same time. - Dr. Al Mahri said the scale of workforce change in the region makes events like HR Tech MENA necessary, not optional. - She said leaders should ask for evidence of changed behavior and performance, not just platform logins. - She also said advanced AI cannot compensate for fragmented data or managers who do not trust or understand the systems.

Between the lines: - The comments reflect a broader shift in HR tech from content management to strategic workforce intelligence. - Abu Dhabi is presenting itself as a test case for government-scale AI adoption across multiple entities. - The summit organizer, QnA International, is using the event to push the discussion from AI awareness to measurable implementation. - Sidh NC, a director at QnA International, said the industry has moved past talking about AI and now needs to focus on what it can do. - He said this year’s program will examine how AI can be embedded into core HR functions while keeping people at the center.

What's next: - Dr. Al Mahri is expected to use the summit to showcase Abu Dhabi’s skills-based workforce model and its AI-enabled learning approach. - The event will bring together HR leaders to compare implementation strategies and practical outcomes. - Organizers say the focus will stay on measurable execution and human-centered design in HR systems.

The bottom line: - Abu Dhabi’s message is clear: AI in HR should improve workforce decisions, not just automate training.