The UAE's position as the top nation across numerous digital areas is down to its early focus on the sector, an expert has said.
The UAE’s determination to advance digitisation and artificial intelligence in delivering government services was in evidence this week through the launch of a new agentic AI project.
Aiming to achieve what Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, described as “a step change in government”, it is the latest initiative to keep the country at the forefront of public sector technological advancement.
AI advisers are to assist ministers in making better and faster decisions, while there will also be a major push for AI to be used in education.
This week, authorities revealed that the UAE is ranked first globally for, among other things, digital skills, the institutional framework for digital government and AI adoption. The country is second globally for satisfaction with government services and is in the top 10 for technology and digital competitiveness.
“[The UAE] were the early movers in this evolution and because of that drive, have put in place all of the foundational elements,” said Dr Raymond Khoury, a partner and public sector practice lead at the Arthur D Little consultancy in Dubai, who has developed government strategies for digital transformation in the region for a quarter of a century. “So when you look at several enabling indicators, they’re ranked number one globally because they’ve invested heavily.”
Digital frontiers
In fields as varied as telecoms infrastructure, digital skills and AI, the UAE is at the forefront, he said, with initiatives at the federal and local levels having been important.
Digitisation offers service delivery improvements and cost savings, all helped by automation. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos last year, Maryam Al Hammadi, Minister of State and Secretary General of the UAE Cabinet, said digitisation had long been a national priority.
“In the UAE we embarked on the modernisation journey very early, two decades ago, where we started with the digital transformation, mobile and smart services,” she said. “The result is that now, in the UAE, 99 per cent of our government service is digitally transformed.”
Digitisation had resulted in savings of $4 billion, while also improving service delivery, she told delegates.
One reason why the UAE has become a leader is because, in Dr Khoury’s words, Gulf states are “uniquely positioned as a collective of countries to advance national agendas”.
“This is not common across the globe,” he added. “These large national agendas … they have tall-order achievement goals. Even if these goals are halfway met, that’s a major undertaking.
"The GCC countries have that differentiated advantage of pursuing national agendas across government and sectors. What that all allows them to do is to take the digital government experience to a higher level.”
Head start
He said some developed nations suffered from “legacy set-ups” that were harder to digitise and integrate, although he pointed to Switzerland as one western nation that had digitised successfully. In Asia, Singapore is seen as a leader.
“These smaller countries that are more developed also have that drive. And they experiment more,” he said.
Now the focus is on advancing AI within governments and economies, as this can lead to better-quality services and make businesses more efficient. “It helps the government enhance accessibility so the government is operating 24/7,” Dr Khoury said.
Specifically, the aim is to advance agentic AI, which involves autonomous AI systems or agents that can deliver individually tailored services with a minimum of human supervision.
Government services can be delivered faster through automated flows, with the need for multi-step processes with human interactions much reduced, while people do not have to move between different government locations or portals, as agents co-ordinate between departments.
The UAE authorities recently announced their aim of providing half of government services through agentic AI within two years. Such efforts align with the Zero Government Bureaucracy Programme announced in 2023, which aims to simplify government procedures.
“Today with agentic AI government call centres are driven mainly by chatbots, which have a capability which is almost human like. That to me is a fundamental transition,” Dr Khoury said. “Now they’re pushing the private sector to do the same. It’s quite unique. You don’t see many countries doing this.
“The talk of AI globally has been around investments in data centres and infrastructure. The UAE is doing that, plus all this agentic AI planning and reskilling.”
Planning ahead
In addition to the agentic AI project, the UAE also announced an AI curriculum would be launched in schools across the country.
In May, the federal government announced that it was training 80,000 government staff in agentic AI. Dubai has also encouraged private companies to use agentic AI by offering training programmes.
“With the foundations in place by the UAE government, they really are in pole position to move from a world-class digital government to the world’s most seamless and intelligent government enabled by agentic AI, and there’s a clear agenda for that,” Dr Khoury said.
