Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence company G42, through its sovereign agentic AI company Inception42, and Microsoft are strengthening their AI partnership to enable governments and businesses to use AI assistants more easily and securely while keeping sensitive data inside the UAE.
The partnership will see Inception42’s agentic AI platform Catalyst working directly with Microsoft Copilot, in a move aimed at speeding up the UAE’s transition to organisations where AI is embedded throughout everyday operations, Inception42 said in a statement on Monday.
The integration means organisations can build AI agents on Catalyst while employees access them through Microsoft 365 applications such as Teams, Outlook and Word without needing to recreate them across different systems.
The collaboration supports the UAE’s national agentic AI initiative, which aims for AI agents to support 50 per cent of federal government operations within two years, the company added.
Agentic AI is an autonomous model of AI capable of making decisions and achieving specific goals with limited supervision.
“This integration reflects how sovereignty and interoperability work together,” Ashish Koshy, chief executive of Inception42, said.
“Catalyst gives governments and enterprises a comprehensive platform to build, govern, and observe their agents ... Demand for agents is moving faster than any single platform can meet on its own, and this puts Inception42 and Microsoft in a position to meet that demand together.”
The collaboration builds on the strategic partnership between G42 and Microsoft and the US tech major’s $15.2 billion AI investment in the UAE in 2024.
The latest agreement deepens the integration between Microsoft's productivity tools and G42's sovereign AI infrastructure, allowing AI agents to operate across both platforms.
Abu Dhabi-based G42 has been central to the UAE’s sovereign AI strategy, with the company rolling out agentic AI across government and enterprise operations. The UAE plans to train 80,000 workers – from ministers to junior employees – in the use of AI agents.
Earlier this year, G42 launched a new operating model allowing states to deploy sovereign AI securely and at scale. The initiative is designed to enhance data sovereignty within governments, allowing them to have full control over their countries' data, systems and policies, regardless of where the infrastructure is located.
Last week, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court, discussed an update on the adoption of agentic AI across the federal government, as he chaired a ministerial meeting in Abu Dhabi. The council examined the project's implementation timeframe, objectives, stages and execution, as the UAE pushes to embed advanced AI capabilities into public-sector operations.
Catalyst is designed to run on sovereign infrastructure, with all data processed in-country, Inception42 said on Monday. It added that agents built in Catalyst can appear inside Microsoft 365 Copilot, while agents created in Copilot can also flow back into Catalyst.
“Customers are looking for AI that is powerful, trusted, governed and practical to adopt ... By enabling agents to run with data processed in country and integrated into the tools people use every day, we are helping governments and enterprises accelerate innovation while maintaining control, security and compliance,” said Amr Kamel, general manager at Microsoft UAE.
Separately, on Monday, the Abu Dhabi government announced the rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot across the UAE capital's public sector, giving tens of thousands of government employees access to generative AI tools.
Under the government's Frontier Employee Programme, 26,000 civil servants across 27 entities have received Copilot, adding to 9,000 existing users, bringing the total to 35,000. The initiative makes Copilot the AI productivity platform for the Abud Dhabi government, helping to speed up decision-making and improve services for the emirate's citizens, residents and businesses, the Department of Government Enablement – Abu Dhabi (DGE) said in a statement.
"Abu Dhabi is building a government that is AI-native by design, where technology elevates how government entities operate, collaborate, and serve the community," said Wesam Lootah, director general of GovDigital at DGE.
