United Arab
Emirates

How The UAE Takes A Holistic Approach To AI

The United Arab Emirates excels thanks to its longstanding leadership in artificial intelligence, which includes appointing the world’s first minister of AI years before generative AI broke into the mainstream.

The UAE’s ambition to become a global AI leader by 2031 entails establishing itself as a sandbox for AI research and deployment. The country’s AI plan estimates the technology will generate roughly $91 billion in economic growth, while government strategists reportedly forecast AI will contribute to 20% of the UAE’s non-oil GDP by 2031.

The UAE is implementing AI holistically, with plans to incorporate it throughout the three pillars of this index: Talent, Resilience, and Sustainability. It aims for high levels of AI uptake among all facets of government and the workforce while investing heavily in expansive data center infrastructure. The UAE is also innovating clean energy technology to improve both sustainability and AI energy demand.

Resilience

How the UAE is doubling down on AI adoption in public and private sectors

In an increasingly competitive landscape, sovereign AI — a nation’s ability to produce AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce, and business networks — is becoming increasingly vital. Local models can help organizations safeguard privacy and innovation from geopolitical shifts and reduce latency. To that end, Abu Dhabi aims to be the world’s first fully AI-native government across all digital services by 2027. The $3.5 billion plan includes using sovereign cloud computing for government operations and automating 100% of processes.

The government also has launched public-private collaborations to support AI’s deployment in its most competitive and mature sectors, like energy, logistics, and tourism, as well as in opportunistic emerging sectors like healthcare and cybersecurity.

Building a digital infrastructure to match AI ambitions

These plans require an equally ambitious digital infrastructure upgrade to handle the mass computing power needed. Stargate UAE, a project to build one of the world’s largest set of AI data centers in the country, was announced in May 2025 in a collaboration between the UAE, the United States, and several tech firms. It will reportedly enable every UAE government agency and commercial institution — across critical sectors like energy, healthcare, and transportation — to access AI models to spur innovation and economic growth. The project’s expansive AI infrastructure and computing capacity can serve users within a 2,000-mile radius, reaching up to half the world’s population.

While the UAE already has an impressive 5G internet infrastructure, it plans to transition to a 6G network by 2030. The new technology is expected to enhance the capabilities of robotics and AI while providing comprehensive and faster internet coverage.

The UAE is among the top 10 leading countries worldwide in its ability to enforce cybersecurity laws. The government oversees its strategy with a public-private council to coordinate efforts and share best practices. And the UAE’s 2031 AI plan calls for a secure data infrastructure to safely facilitate data sharing and manage privacy concerns.

Talent

Equipping an AI-oriented economy with a trained workforce

The UAE also ranks sixth in government and business investment to upskill workforce talent. Abu Dhabi’s government is investing in AI training for its citizens, including partnerships with the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence for upskilling programs. Elsewhere, Dubai has partnered with a tech firm to launch an AI skills program for its government workforce.

Nationally, the UAE’s DGOV Academy offers courses aimed at equipping the public for digital transformations, while its Future Skills program is a 12-month training for students, employees, and prospective workers in tech-based job skills. The UAE has also incorporated AI as a formal school subject from kindergarten to grade 12 beginning in 2025.

The country also offers AI training programs outside of formal education curriculums, like the UAE AI Summer Camp, which hosted more than 22,000 participants.

Eighty-three percent of UAE residents say they use AI at work at least once a week, a rate that’s significantly higher than the global average of 61%, according to a 17-nation survey completed by the Oliver Wyman Forum in May 2025. Fifty-six percent of residents also said that AI has improved their work productivity, and residents are above average in reporting that their employer has communicated a clear ambition on AI strategy and released AI training programs.

Sustainability

Clean energy innovations power the UAE’s AI ambitions

The UAE, one of the world’s best countries at funding environmental innovations, recently unveiled a new energy project to meet energy demands from AI and other elements of the digital economy. In October 2025, the government announced a world-first facility that combines solar power and battery storage to deliver 1 gigawatt of renewable energy 24/7. The project represents more than $6 billion of capital investment. The UAE is on track to have the majority of its energy come from clean sources.