Lebanon's AI minister says $50m can transform government and make it more accountable

In an interview with The National, former e& executive Kamal Shehadi says the money would be used to bring in a national ID system, digitise payments and help build the infrastructure required for AI

Lebanon's Minister of the Displaced and Minister of State for Technology and Artificial Intelligence, Kamal Shehadi, says the country's digital transformation can begin with as little as $50 million – a sum he believes is enough to modernise core government services and restore public trust in a broken state.

In an interview with The National, Mr Shehadi said the funds would be used to roll out a national digital ID, digitise payments and build the legal and technical infrastructure required for AI.

“With a budget of $30 to $50 million over the next two years,” he said, “I can transform the way the government does business and deals with its citizens … in a way that is more accountable, more transparent, seamless.”

Appointed earlier this year to Prime Minister Nawaf Salam's new government, Mr Shehadi holds a dual portfolio – managing both the Ministry of the Displaced and the newly created AI and technology brief.

From war legacy to future vision

Mr Shehadi describes his role as a “split personality”, shifting between Lebanon’s war-torn past and the promise of a digital future.

He hopes to position Lebanon as a platform for innovation – not by competing with regional powerhouses but by integrating into their wider strategies.

“The ambition is not to compete with the UAE or Saudi Arabia,” he said. “The right thing to do is to think how we can fit into the strategy of our friends and our Gulf brothers … and deliver on our own.”

Mr Shehadi believes Lebanon's value lies in its human capital, diaspora, and problem-solving culture.

He sees immediate opportunities in Lebanon's core strengths – health care, higher education, and the creative industries – not only because the country excels in them but also because they are natural spaces for human creativity and innovation.

“And it so happens that Lebanon has excelled in a number of areas … health care is one, higher education is another, and the third is the creative industries like fashion and entertainment and music and all of that.”

With more than a decade of experience at UAE telecoms group e&, Mr Shehadi hopes to apply lessons from the Gulf’s digital transformation to Lebanon. “Even though it's a very different political environment and economy, there are lessons to be learned,” he said.

He acknowledged that Lebanon, unlike the Gulf’s highly resourced tech ecosystems, must take a more targeted, incremental approach – one grounded in its specific context.

“We are fortunate in a way that we're coming to this game a bit late so we can learn from what others have done,” he said, noting that Lebanon doesn’t need to “recreate the wheel” when it comes to regulation or infrastructure.

Regional and global partnerships

Lebanon's AI strategy must be pragmatic and collaborative, he said. Mr Shehadi is in informal talks with Gulf partners, European stakeholders, and international institutions such as the World Bank.

He also counts on the Lebanese diaspora, many of whom work in tech across the US, Gulf, and Europe. But he does not expect them to return. “It's not about i them back,” he said. "It's about first giving them a country they can be proud of … and then they'll want to invest, support talent, and build something meaningful.”

Mr Shehadi’s ambitions come against one of the worst economic collapses in modern history.

Since 2019, Lebanon’s currency has lost more than 90 per cent of its value, public services have all but collapsed, and poverty has more than tripled, now affecting 44 per cent of the population, according to a World Bank report released last year.

Much of that strain, he argues, is made worse by outdated systems and a lack of digital infrastructure.

The proper use of data, he believes, could significantly reduce long-term costs – particularly in areas like displacement and reconstruction.

It starts with building Lebanon’s digital backbone, he said. “The piping, the exchange of information, of data from one ministry to another … building the data pools, cleaning them, labelling the data.”

From there, AI can be applied to a range of pressing needs – from delivering social assistance more efficiently to mapping war damage and estimating reconstruction costs.

“We could use geospatial imaging to reconstruct models of what was there before instead of sending hundreds of engineers,” he said.

He is already coordinating with the Ministry of Social Affairs to apply AI in public welfare and support systems.

Post-conflict ethics and regional security

Mr Shehadi also addressed the role of AI in the most recent conflict with Israel, calling it “the first AI war of the 21st century”, even more so than Ukraine. More than 300,000 homes were destroyed, and over half a million people were displaced in what he described as a war “we could have and should have avoided”.

He reiterated the government's position that all weapons must remain under the state's control. “Only the Lebanese Armed Forces, security services, and affiliated legitimate state institutions should hold weapons,” he said. And the decision of war and peace must lie with the government of Lebanon.”

He said AI in military defence remains a long-term consideration. “That's a five – to ten-year journey,” he said. But ethical concerns must be addressed now.

“AI is raising lots of issues for which humanity and countries all over the world are still struggling with,” he said.

“Post-conflict societies tend to have their own challenges,” he said. “They're not like any other society that has not experienced war … when you [focus on ethics], we can absorb, integrate technology in a more responsible way.”

Mr Shehadi believes that for AI to work in Lebanon, it must be inclusive and accessible. “AI and deep tech should be taught at all levels, starting from the youngest – from schools to universities,” he said.

Although top universities such as the American University of Beirut and The Lebanese American University already offer AI courses, he hopes for more collaboration across institutions and more significant faculty support.

More than anything, he wants Lebanese citizens – especially the youth – to see a future worth investing in. “I want them and their children to be proud of being Lebanese,” he said. “And if we manage to do that, I believe we'll see the rise of a new generation ready to take us forward.”