Alabbar says AI will halve Noon's staff in three months

Mohamed Alabbar, the co-founder and chairman of Saudi and PIF-backed e-commerce platform Noon, has said the company will cut its headcount by 50% over the next three months, attributing the reduction to the accelerating impact of AI on its operations.

"I don't want anybody to tell this but Noon will go down 50% in staff in three months," Alabbar said in remarks at the Belgrade Business Summit 2026, aired on Euronews Serbia on 15 May.

The remarks are consistent with an ambition Alabbar has been publicly articulating for at least eight months. In a September 2025 interview with the Financial Times, Alabbar similarly said Noon would aim to reduce its driver workforce by 50% by 2027 through autonomous vehicles, leased self-driving vans and three-wheelers.

Noon employs approximately 40,000 drivers and operates across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. The company raised $500 million in December 2025 from backers including the PIF and Alabbar himself, with the round positioned as preparation for a potential dual listing in Saudi Arabia and the UAE within two years. Alabbar told the FT in September that the company is "almost profitable" and that "our board members and the world and the banks don't accept that nonsense anymore" referring to listing without profitability.

Alabbar described the AI infrastructure he says is enabling the reduction. "I actually have 12 agents working. I have 12 AI agents running at the same time," he said. "It's the first time that we have a 45-minute automated interview for staff. We don't interview anymore. It's the AI that does the analysis. It measures your breathing while it's interviewing you."

Alabbar also said Emaar Properties, the Dubai-listed developer he chairs, has not hired new staff for three years while growing revenue. "In Emaar, we haven't hired people for the past three years and our business moved up 150%," he said. "We are very efficient people, thanks to my staff. But in general, there is no need for people any more."

The Belgrade remarks are the most explicit articulation yet of a trade-off now visible at multiple major regional tech businesses. Uber, which retains a 42% stake in Careem Technologies and fully owns Careem's ride-hailing business, told investors on its Q1 earnings call earlier this month that it was "increasing its investment in AI and paying for it by hiring less", with CEO Dara Khosrowshahi describing the company as "metering headcount growth and leaning in on AI investment."

Careem itself has laid off staff across multiple markets and closed its Berlin office entirely in a restructuring FWDstart reported earlier this month. Egyptian quick commerce platform Breadfast confirmed last week the non-renewal of 58 contracts across its engineering, product and data functions, with the spokesperson saying the company "continues to invest behind our long-term plan to expand our fulfilment network, private label, and AI technology across Egypt."

It should be noted that Noon has not formally announced any restructuring programme, and the 50% figure has not been confirmed by the company's communications team or by any other Noon executive.