AI keynote speaker in Abu Dhabi.

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Who he is

Rahim Hirji is the author of SuperSkills: The Seven Human Skills for the Age of AI (Kogan Page, 2026) and founder of The SuperSkills Intelligence Company. He is based in London and speaks worldwide. He founded EtonX, the online learning venture of Eton College, and led Quizlet's international expansion across sixty countries. The argument rests on research across more than 200 organisations in 30 countries, published openly with every source graded.

The argument

AI rarely takes a whole job. It takes the first draft, the initial analysis, the routine review. Those were also the tasks through which people built the judgement that made them senior. The work still ships and the output often improves, so nothing triggers an alarm.

The question for a leadership team is whether the organisation is drifting into AI through a thousand small reasonable decisions nobody quite made, or designing it by deciding in advance where human judgement has to remain.

Three keynotes

Drift vs Design, the signature keynote for boards and executive teams. We Are Superheroes, the seven human skills that grow more valuable as tools spread, for whole organisations and conferences. WTH, What the Human, a live judgement test for boards, December to March only. Full descriptions at keynotes.

Abu Dhabi, where the ambition is real and the measurement is not

Rahim worked for the government of Abu Dhabi earlier in his career, before founding EtonX and leading Quizlet's international expansion. He knows the Emirate as somebody who has worked inside it rather than visited it.

Abu Dhabi's own framing is unusually close to the argument in these keynotes. Its 2025 to 2027 digital strategy reports over 95 per cent of its 30,000-plus employees completing AI training, and states that employees are being prepared to apply AI in ways that enhance, rather than replace, human-centred public service. That is the right instinct, put in writing by a government.

The harder question is what the training measures. Completion is delivery, not capability. The test that matters is whether a person could still do the work unaided, and no government in the Gulf currently measures that.

The wider federal position moved in June 2026, when the Office of AI was folded into a new Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority reporting directly to Cabinet, alongside a programme to train 80,000 federal employees in agentic AI and a target to deploy agentic AI across half of government services.

The UAE Charter states human oversight as a principle. It names no duty-holder, sets no competence requirement, and is silent on deskilling. The gap between an ambitious programme and an unenforceable principle is exactly where these sessions are useful.

The full verified picture for the region, with every document read at the issuing body's own page, is at AI and work in the Gulf.

Practical

Keynotes run 40 to 90 minutes, in person or online, tailored after a briefing call. Booking is usually three to six months ahead. Delivery is in English only. Travel from London to Abu Dhabi where the brief justifies it.

Written by Rahim Hirji, author of SuperSkills (Kogan Page, 2026), founder of The SuperSkills Intelligence Company. The research is published openly with every source graded. Found an error? Tell me and it is corrected on the page.