How Emirates Group's Masar AI Platform Hired 9,700 People From 3.5 Million Applications
By Chris Weinmann, Founder, OVI
How Emirates Group's Masar AI Platform Hired 9,700 People From 3.5 Million Applications
When your airline group receives 3.5 million job applications in a single financial year, manual screening is not an option — it is an impossibility. Emirates Group, one of the world's largest aviation conglomerates, solved that problem with Masar, its proprietary AI-powered hiring platform. The result: 9,700 hires in FY2025-26, a time-to-hire that dropped from 60 days to near zero, and Dh 1.9 million in recruitment cost savings.
This is the most data-rich, publicly reported AI hiring case study to come out of the GCC aviation sector — and it offers a concrete blueprint for HR leaders managing extreme application volumes.
The Scale of the Problem
Emirates Group's workforce grew to 130,919 employees in FY2025-26, an 8% year-on-year increase. Emirates airline alone employs 74,980 people, while ground-handling and travel subsidiary Dnata accounts for another 55,939 (Aviation Pros). The group keeps more than 4,000 UAE nationals on its payroll, meeting Emiratisation mandates that are tightening across the country.
With application volumes at 3.5 million for the year — and a five-year plan to recruit close to 20,000 operational staff including cabin crew, pilots, engineers, and technicians (Aviation Pros) — the group needed a system that could handle industrial-grade throughput without sacrificing quality or compliance.
What Masar Does Differently
Masar is not a bolt-on chatbot. It is Emirates Group's in-house AI recruitment platform, integrated with HireVue video assessments to screen candidates at scale (Khaleej Times).
The platform uses a three-tier AI sort to classify every applicant:
- Progress — candidates who meet all role criteria and advance automatically
- Validation required — borderline candidates flagged for human review
- Rejected — candidates who do not meet minimum qualifications
Critically, recruiters manually review both the "validation required" and "rejected" tiers to check for hiring bias or algorithmic error (Khaleej Times). This human-in-the-loop design keeps the system compliant with emerging AI hiring regulations while maintaining the speed advantages of automation.
The Numbers: FY2025-26 Annual Performance
The full-year results from FY2025-26 tell a striking story of funnel compression:
| Metric |
Value |
Source |
| Applications received |
3.5 million |
Aviation Pros |
| Candidates shortlisted |
390,000 |
Aviation Pros |
| Employees hired |
9,700 |
Aviation Pros |
| Time-to-hire reduction |
60 days → near zero |
Khaleej Times |
| Recruitment cost savings |
Dh 1.9 million |
Khaleej Times |
| Recruiter hours saved |
8,849 |
Khaleej Times |
| Recruiter days saved |
1,100+ |
Khaleej Times |
That is an 11:1 funnel compression ratio from application to shortlist, and a further 40:1 ratio from shortlist to hire — automated at a scale that would otherwise require hundreds of additional recruiters.
Early Results: April 2025 Snapshot
Before the full-year figures were published, Emirates Group released partial data from an earlier period (April 2025) that provides a useful window into Masar's initial performance:
- 333,851 applications vetted through the AI process
- 26,000+ candidates shortlisted
- 2,500 offers extended
- 65% offer acceptance rate
(Khaleej Times)
These figures cover a different, earlier reporting period than the FY2025-26 annual data and should not be combined with the full-year results above.
Beyond Recruitment: AI as a Workforce Strategy
Emirates Group's investment in AI goes beyond the hiring funnel. Oliver Grohmann, Executive Vice President of Human Resources, has framed AI adoption as an organisational survival skill:
"AI or tech will not replace jobs, but your job will be replaced by somebody who knows how to use and leverage technology better."
(UNLEASH)
To back that message with action, the group launched "Get Future-Ready," a six-part generative AI learning series designed to build digital confidence across the workforce. An AI Champions network has been established to drive innovation and share knowledge across business units (UNLEASH).
On the analytics side, Grohmann notes that Emirates Group has built "a suite of powerful dashboards that give us real-time insights across recruitment, onboarding, training, and forecasting" over the past 18 to 24 months (UNLEASH).
What This Means for UAE Employers
Emirates Group's scale is exceptional, but the underlying playbook is transferable. The three principles that made Masar work — AI-first screening with human bias review, structured tiering that creates accountability, and leadership-driven upskilling — apply to any UAE employer navigating high-volume hiring.
Among the AI-native ATS platforms serving the UAE market, OVI combines an AI sourcing agent (Sora) and an AI screening agent (Milo) designed for GCC hiring workflows. For organisations that lack the resources to build a proprietary platform like Masar, commercial AI hiring tools offer a faster path to similar funnel compression — starting at $29/month.
FAQ
How does Emirates Group's Masar platform prevent AI bias in hiring?
Masar uses a three-tier classification system (progress, validation required, rejected) where human recruiters manually review both the "validation required" and "rejected" categories. This ensures that no candidate is discarded by the algorithm alone, and provides a structured check against hiring bias or algorithmic error (Khaleej Times).
How many applications did Emirates Group process with AI in FY2025-26?
Emirates Group received 3.5 million job applications in FY2025-26. The Masar platform shortlisted 390,000 candidates, from which 9,700 were ultimately hired (Aviation Pros).
What cost and time savings did Masar deliver?
The platform reduced time-to-hire from 60 days to near zero, saved Dh 1.9 million in recruitment costs, freed up 8,849 recruiter hours (equivalent to more than 1,100 working days), and allowed four of six recruiters to be reassigned to higher-value activities (Khaleej Times).
Can other UAE employers replicate Emirates Group's AI hiring approach?
The core principles — AI-first screening with human-in-the-loop review, structured candidate tiering, and leadership-backed upskilling — are transferable to organisations of any size. Commercial AI hiring platforms such as OVI offer similar funnel-compression capabilities without the need to build a proprietary system.
What are Emirates Group's future hiring plans?
Emirates airline alone plans to recruit close to 20,000 operational staff over the next five years, covering cabin crew, pilots, engineers, technicians, and airport staff (Aviation Pros).
How does Emirates Group's Masar platform prevent AI bias in hiring?
Masar uses a three-tier classification system (progress, validation required, rejected) where human recruiters manually review both the "validation required" and "rejected" categories. This ensures no candidate is discarded by the algorithm alone and provides a structured check against hiring bias or algorithmic error.
How many applications did Emirates Group process with AI in FY2025-26?
Emirates Group received 3.5 million job applications in FY2025-26. The Masar platform shortlisted 390,000 candidates, from which 9,700 were ultimately hired.
What cost and time savings did Masar deliver?
The platform reduced time-to-hire from 60 days to near zero, saved Dh 1.9 million in recruitment costs, freed up 8,849 recruiter hours (equivalent to more than 1,100 working days), and allowed four of six recruiters to be reassigned to higher-value activities.
Can other UAE employers replicate Emirates Group's AI hiring approach?
The core principles — AI-first screening with human-in-the-loop review, structured candidate tiering, and leadership-backed upskilling — are transferable to organisations of any size. Commercial AI hiring platforms such as OVI offer similar funnel-compression capabilities without the need to build a proprietary system.
What are Emirates Group's future hiring plans?
Emirates airline alone plans to recruit close to 20,000 operational staff over the next five years, covering cabin crew, pilots, engineers, technicians, and airport staff.