GST Retail: Digital Transformation in The Dynamic Middle East Retail Industry

Soha Hayat, CHRO at GST Retail, a fashion retail brand based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that had stores across the Middle East region, had just returned from a monthly leadership review meeting. Although the reviews so far in 2022 had been difficult, the October 2022 review was perhaps the most shocking for Hayat. he Human Resources department had been under severe scrutiny for some months, and in this meeting, the leadership team had categorically stated that HR was slowing the entire firm down. Hayat believed that the problem had much deeper roots than what was being projected. GST was recuperating from a massive slowdown induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, which had begun early in 2020 and persisted throughout much of 2021. In the past few months, as customers returned to shop, sales had grown, signaling recovery. The leadership team, which wanted the company to bounce back quickly and instill confidence in their investors, had set ambitious new targets. This came with its own downside for GST, whose workforce count was at an all-time low. Hayat and her team wanted to initiate a revamp of the HR department through a dynamic technological transformation. The existing software deployed at GST was familiar to everyone but incapable of the transformation that was needed. Recently, Hayat had heard a lot about the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based solutions into HR. However, this was a relative new technology which would require substantial planning and e r chair, the question looming over her was, how should she proceed?

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