Dubai Wants Every Future Digital Company To Be AI-First: UAE Minister

Dubai aims to be a business-friendly artificial intelligence hub with every future digital company being AI-driven, according to a UAE minister. It is part of a roadmap that will see the emirate further cement its status as one of the leaders in AI adoption.

Speaking at the opening of Dubai AI week, Omar Sultan AlOlama Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications , said that the emirate has set several targets to improve its use of AI over the next year, one of which will be an integration of government and private sector.

“Dubai understands business and artificial intelligence,” he said.“We know that we can work with the best of the brightest to be able to ensure that Dubai is the place where artificial intelligence is deployed and where the benefits are reaped.”

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He added that there is going to be“a shift” when it comes to startups, success, and artificial intelligence.“Every single unicorn that has come out of the UAE was an AI company,” he explained.“Whether it's Careem or Souq, they are all companies that were AI first. Every single company that's going to be in our digital economy moving forward needs to be an AI first company. And that's going to be a key focus for the next phase.”

Creating a talent pool

AlOlama said that Dubai was committed to creating a talent pool.“We want to be a hub that grows the best talent, nurtures them, and hopefully exports their ingenuity to the rest of the world,” he said. To do this, Dubai will invest in education and equipping educators with the“right tools” to help students. Over 10,000 students benefitted from launching AI week in educational institutes last year.

He also revealed that over the next year, every government entity will be assessed and ranked based on the extent to which Al is integrated into its business and the capabilities of its teams.

“It doesn't mean that we're going to leverage artificial intelligence just for the sake of it,” he clarified.“We want to ensure that the application and use of AI actually improves the quality of life of citizens in the UAE and in Dubai specifically.”

The AI week, which began on Monday at the Museum of the Future and Emirates Towers, will see several activities including the AI Retreat, Global Prompt Engineering Championship, the Dubai AI Festival, and Machines Can See conference. It aims to bring together global experts, decision-makers and innovators from the world's most prominent AI-focused institutions and companies to the emirate.

Achievements

Over the last year, over Dh20.6 billion was invested in Dubai to boost AI capabilities. More than 26 initiatives were launched across the emirate to achieve the Dubai Universal Blueprint for Artificial Intelligence which was announced in April 2024.

The emirate is well on track to achieve the target of appointing a chief AI officer for every government department by May this year, with over 230 people appointed. Last year, Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum also launched the world's first and largest AI prompt engineering training initiative which aims to upskill one million people in prompt engineering over the next three years.

AlOlama revealed that over 325 companies had been issued the AI seal since the campaign was launched in January this year. He said that the seal“helped classify exactly how many companies are doing the best-in-class artificial intelligence and how many companies are repurposing certain models that are open source and that are out there.”

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