Leveraging AI for Recruitment and Retention in Multicultural Aviation Settings: A Narrative Literature Review

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming recruitment and talent management across industries, particularly in aviation where safety, multicultural collaboration, and workforce stability are essential. This narrative literature review examines how AI-enabled recruitment influences employee engagement, procedural justice perceptions, cultural alignment, and long-term retention in multicultural aviation workforces, with emphasis on the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Searches were conducted across Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect using predefined Boolean terms related to AI recruitment, aviation human resources, multicultural teams, organizational justice, and retention. Fifty-two peer-reviewed studies published between 1988 and 2025 met the inclusion criteria and were synthesized thematically. Findings indicate that AI enhances recruitment efficiency, screening accuracy, and predictive decision-making, yet concerns persist regarding fairness, transparency, and cultural adaptability. Employee engagement, perceptions of justice, and ethical leadership emerged as key mediators linking AI recruitment to retention outcomes. The review highlights that AI's impact on retention is shaped less by technological capability and more by employees' culturally conditioned interpretations of fairness, trustworthiness, and organizational care. A central contribution of this study is the introduction of cultural resonance-the extent to which AI systems reflect and respond to the cultural diversity of the workforce. This perspective expands existing theories by showing that fairness and engagement are shaped by cultural experience as much as by individual psychology. The study underscores the need for culturally adaptive, ethically governed AI systems to support sustainable talent retention in the UAE aviation sector.