HR professionals in the Gulf feel unsure about their roles as AI spreads; self-directed learning helped, interviews find

Even so, the changes created job insecurity. It showed up mainly as uncertainty about what their roles will require, not as an immediate fear of losing their jobs.

Participants said workplace learning, especially self-directed learning, was the main way they regained professional agency and built adaptive capacity. Some began to treat AI disruption as a career opportunity. The perceived irreducibility of human judgment and relational expertise also steadied their sense of professional identity.

The accounts are self-reported and the data were collected in 2025, so they reflect views at one point in a fast-moving technology shift.

The study built on conservation of resources theory to ask how HR professionals experience and interpret AI-driven changes to their roles, how those changes shape job insecurity, and whether workplace learning reduces the effect. Researchers interviewed HR professionals from different sectors and analyzed the data thematically.

Participants described change as gradual. Rather than seeing AI replace their function, they saw it redistribute tasks toward more strategic and relational work. Their insecurity centred on unclear future role expectations, not on near-term job loss.

Perceived irreducibility of human judgment and relational expertise acted as a stabilizing identity resource. Self-directed learning was described as the principal mechanism for restoring professional agency and building adaptive capacity, and some participants reframed AI as a career-development opportunity.

The authors present the work as a shift toward the subjective experience of insecurity among insiders, with evidence from the Gulf region. They suggest future longitudinal studies and quantitative tests of workplace learning as a mediating or moderating factor.