The UAE has ranked sixth out of 98 countries in a new global index measuring how effectively people are developing artificial intelligence (AI) skills alongside the human skills needed to use them. The country emerged as the Middle East’s strongest performer in the AI-Human Skills Synergy Index, according to Coursera and Udemy’s Global Skills Report 2026.
Only Germany, France, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong ranked ahead of the UAE. The country placed above the Netherlands at seventh, the United States at eighth, Singapore at 10th, Canada at 11th, and the United Kingdom at 19th.
The regional performance showed a wide gap between countries. Israel ranked 18th, while Saudi Arabia placed 25th, the last position in the report’s ‘leading’ tier. Egypt ranked 43rd, Qatar 46th, Bahrain 48th, and Turkey 41st, placing them in the ‘competitive’ tier.
Oman ranked 66th, Kuwait 67th, Jordan 70th and Lebanon 72nd in the ‘emerging’ group. Yemen and Iraq ranked 82nd and 86th, respectively, and were classified as ‘lagging’.
Among major source countries for UAE expatriate workers, India ranked 40th, Pakistan 47th and Bangladesh 50th, all within the competitive tier. The Philippines ranked 63rd.
Coursera described the index as the first of its kind. It combines Coursera learner behavior, which accounts for 60 percent of the score, with Oxford Insights’ Government AI Readiness Index 2025, which accounts for the remaining 40 percent.
The learner component considers proficiency, the range of skills studied and the overlap between AI and human skills. The government readiness measure assesses government capacity, policy infrastructure and technology readiness.
The report noted that the UAE and Singapore have high levels of population-wide generative AI adoption, according to Stanford’s 2026 AI Index. It also listed the UAE, Australia, and Singapore among jurisdictions that emphasize guidance, safeguards, and assurance tools in AI governance.
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However, the report warned that AI deployment is moving faster than the skills required to use the technology. Nearly three in four organizations have deployed or are piloting AI, while only 18 percent said most of their workforce participated in AI reskilling or upskilling during the past year.
Globally, AI enrolments increased 67 percent year on year, while generative AI enrolments rose 132 percent. Critical thinking enrolments increased 107 percent and complex problem-solving enrolments rose 126 percent.
The data compares April 2025 to March 2026 with the previous 12 months. Coursera cautioned that the figures represent platform learners rather than entire populations and do not measure workplace outcomes.