Jiten Puri,
Chief Human Resource Officer, AMIS Development
In conversation with Jiten Puri, Chief Human Resource Officer, AMIS Development
Across the GCC, the future of work is already taking shape. Artificial intelligence is becoming an everyday operating capability, skills are evolving faster than traditional job descriptions, and nationalisation is moving beyond compliance to influence leadership pipelines and long-term workforce strategy. For Jiten Puri, Chief Human Resource Officer at AMIS Development, preparing for this future requires more than adopting new technology. Organisations must build the right capabilities, create psychological safety and develop cultures that encourage people to learn, challenge established thinking and make confident decisions. In this conversation with The Leadership Gazette, Jiten discusses the workplace of 2030, the shift from “culture fit” to “culture add,” the indicators that reveal leadership potential and why organisational culture must be sustained through systems—not slogans.
1 . What will the workplace look like over the next five years?
The GCC is building one of the world’s most engaged workforces, with the UAE and Saudi Arabia
emerging as trendsetters. Recent engagement data places employee engagement in the UAE at 27%,
compared with a global average of approximately 20%.
Over the next few years, I expect this workplace transformation to accelerate in three significant
ways.
First, AI will become a baseline operating requirement. A growing proportion of regional and
multinational organisations are integrating AI tools into everyday work rather than treating them as
experimental technologies.
Second, skills will evolve faster than ever. Many of the capabilities required for jobs across the MENA
region will change considerably by 2030, requiring organisations and employees to continually
reassess what relevance looks like.
Third, nationalisation has moved beyond being a compliance obligation to become a fundamental
workforce strategy. Saudisation and Emiratisation are now reaching the C-suite and reshaping how
organisations identify, develop and promote talent at every level.
The workplace of 2030 in our region will be AI-ready, skills-first and powered by talented nationals in
the right roles.
2 . How should organisations prepare for the future of work?
The future of work will depend on the integration of capability and culture.
One of the most practical steps an organisation can take is to build a comprehensive skills
taxonomy—a detailed map of the technical, cognitive and behavioural capabilities required across
every role, rather than relying solely on an organisational chart.
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that 63% of employers consider skills
gaps the greatest barrier to business transformation. Understanding the difference between the
skills an organisation possesses today and those it will need tomorrow can also support
nationalisation by expanding the pool of qualified national talent.
Conscious organisations—those genuinely committed to retaining the right people—will focus on
reskilling and redeploying existing employees rather than depending exclusively on external
recruitment.
Culture is equally important. Some organisations lose promising talent because they assume those
individuals do not fit the existing culture. Instead of searching only for “culture fit,” businesses
should consider “culture add”: what new perspective, behaviour or capability could this person
contribute?
That mindset can enable future-focused transformation. Before deploying another technology or
pursuing new talent, organisations should invest in psychological safety, distributed decision-making
and middle-management capability. That is where transformation truly accelerates.
3 . How do you identify leadership potential during the hiring process?
Leadership potential is one of the most consequential assessments an organisation makes. I look for
four indicators, which together form the acronym “LEAD.”
Learn and Grow: Is the individual open to feedback? Do they demonstrate learning agility and the
ability to learn, unlearn and relearn as circumstances change?
Engagement: Leadership is ultimately about people. Do others want to work with this person—and,
equally importantly, work for them?
Applied Thinking: How does the individual handle complexity? What does their decision-making look
like when the situation is ambiguous and there is no obvious answer?
Drive: Do they bring energy and enthusiasm to their professional and personal lives? Do they
demonstrate perseverance, take initiative and willingly go beyond what is expected?
Exploring these indicators helps reveal an individual’s self-awareness and provides evidence of how
they have led themselves, their teams and the business.
The best predictor of leadership potential is not past success alone. It is demonstrated learning
agility, self-awareness, courage and the ability to make other people better.
4 . How do you encourage a culture of continuous learning?
Early in my career, I learned the importance of the 70–20–10 model: approximately 70% of
development takes place through experience and action-oriented projects, 20% through
relationships such as coaching, mentoring and professional networks, and 10% through formal
training.
The most effective learning often happens at the point of work—when an employee recognises a
capability gap and can immediately access the resource, tool or expertise required to close it.
Psychological safety is the prerequisite. If people are afraid to ask questions or admit that they do
not know something, no training budget will solve the problem.
Learning must also be connected to career outcomes. Employees disengage when development is
not linked to visible progression. Clear career frameworks and internal mobility programmes make
the value of learning tangible.
The real question organisations should ask is: are our employees leaving their roles more capable
than when they entered them?
Creating a consciously learning-oriented ecosystem is essential to building an engaged and future-
ready workforce.
5 . How do you define a strong organisational culture, and how can it be sustained?
A strong culture is not a collection of posters on a wall. It is the aggregate of everyday
decisions—what gets rewarded, what gets tolerated, what gets challenged and what gets ignored.
First, culture must be felt rather than merely declared. It is created through the everyday
experiences people have at work. An employee should be able to explain what the organisation
stands for by telling a story, not simply reciting a value statement.
Second, a strong culture is psychologically safe. People must be able to disagree with leadership,
acknowledge mistakes and propose unconventional ideas without fear. This becomes especially
important as organisations navigate AI-driven transformation. The businesses that lead will be those
in which employees feel safe enough to experiment, fail, learn and try again.
Third, culture must be sustained through systems rather than slogans. It lives in recruitment criteria,
performance management, promotion decisions and even the way meetings are conducted.
The distance between what leaders believe and what employees experience is where most cultural
failure occurs. Strong organisations create feedback mechanisms that help close that gap through
frequent anonymous listening, visible action and the courage to identify what is not
working—before a resignation does.
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