The initiative aims to boost Abu Dhabi’s economy by more than Dh24 billion and generate more than 5000 jobs by 2027.
The Abu Dhabi government hopes to become the first in the world to run a government entirely on artificial intelligence by 2027. They have launched their Digital Strategy 2025-2027 to fulfill that dream.
The program plans to spend Dh13 billion ($3.5 billion) between 2025 and 2027 to improve its digital infrastructure, automate all its government processes, and integrate sovereign cloud computing into all its operations. It will be under the Department of Government Enablement (DGE) of Abu Dhabi in collaboration with other government entities in the Emirates.
The plan aims to boost Abu Dhabi’s economy by more than Dh24 billion and generate more than 5000 jobs by 2027.
The strategy plans to empower its citizens by training them in AI through its AI for All program. Additionally, it aims to deliver more than 200 AI-driven solutions for government services.
It seeks to guarantee a strong cyber security framework and optimize operations using a single corporate resource planning platform.
The chairman of DGE, Ahmed Al Kuttab, assured that they plan to revolutionize public service delivery, optimize government operations, and promote sustainable economic growth by using AI, cloud computing, and data-driven insights into the DNA of the government.
Shiva Pillai, the project delivery specialist at a high-tech company in Abu Dhabi, sees a revolutionary potential in using AI in government domains like cybersecurity, disaster management, healthcare, law enforcement, and procurement.
He claims that using artificial intelligence would help the government develop more accurate forecasts for services to eventually improve the standard of living, promote economic expansion, and speed up the decision-making process.
Even the golden egg will come with its own set of challenges. Using AI in government can lead to data breaches and possible disparity in service delivery due to inaccurate or inconsistent data.
He clarifies that when the data is clean, AI would perform better. Clean data means information is consistent in all the systems. However, not all the residents would have equally complete data in the system. An individual would only benefit from the system if they had clean data.
He shares examples from his records where gender title mismatches and different name spellings led to delays and issues in specific procedures.
However, implementing an AI-powered government would need significant changes within the culture for people to accept and execute it. Pillai noted that even though there are self-service machines in the telecom and banking centers, people still want in-person assistance. People need to shift their mindset to embrace the transformation brought on by artificial intelligence.
In 2019, the United Arab Emirates introduced the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, one of the first institutes globally dedicated to AI education.
The Government Digital Strategy of Abu Dhabi has over ten years of digital progress, evolving from e-government to smart services, and now they have upgraded to AI-powered services to citizens, residents, and businesses across various industries.
Recently, many programs, like the third evolution of the TAMM platform, TAMM 3.0, and the Abu Dhabi Programme for an Effortless Customer Experience, were based on digital solutions and technologies like AI and data analytics.
Additionally, they have partnered with Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence to enhance skills, the Advanced Technology Research Council for large language model development, and technology company G42 for AI infrastructure for Abu Dhabi to become the global leader in digital governance and innovation.
The UAE government is also adopting emerging technologies to keep up with the rapid advancements in AI.
In November, the Technology Innovation Institute in Abu Dhabi hosted the first-ever open-source AI summit in the UAE.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, whose ChatGPT played a key role in popularising AI, stated during the 2024 World Government Summit in Dubai that the UAE would be well-positioned to lead discussions on a potential global AI regulatory body.
Saudi is also the first in the Arab region to join the Hiroshima AI Process Friends Group, which focuses on AI safety and security.
The Stanford Institute for Human-Centred AI assessed AI competitiveness in 36 nations globally and announced that the UAE is in the fifth position for AI competition, ahead of countries like France, South Korea, Germany, Japan, and Singapore.
