#UAE #agenticAI - Dubai has launched the Create AI Agents Championship, a global competition with a total prize pool above AED 2.5 million ($680k). Announced by Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, it replaces the Create Apps Championship, run by the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy. Four category winners each get a AED 550,000 grant, and one becomes AI Agent of the Year with AED 1 million. The contest aims to speed up agentic AI adoption in Dubai’s business ecosystem and turn ideas into scalable ventures.
SO WHAT? - Dubai’s plans to ramp up adoption in both public and private sectors, needs a pipeline of AI agent concepts to succeed. So, the Create AI Agents Championship is one of a series of initiatives announced by Dubai to help accelerate and improve that pipeline. The contest may help identify new AI agent concepts from across the world that could add to that effort.
KEY POINTS:
Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced the Create AI Agents Championship, at the awards ceremony for the third Create Apps Championship. The renaming of the competition, shifts the focus from digital apps to autonomous AI-agent system.
The prize pool exceeds AED 2.5 million ($680k). Each of four category winners receives a AED 550,000 grant, and one of them also takes the AI Agent of the Year title and AED 1 million.
The four categories are Best Societal AI Agent, Best Personal AI Agent, Best Business AI Agent and Best Youth AI Agent. The youth category is for people under 21 at registration, and team leads must meet the same age limit.
Entry is open worldwide to technical and non-technical applicants, with no minimum age. Individuals and teams can submit an idea, prototype or early-stage MVP. Existing businesses can enter new AI-agent solutions, but fully commercialised products can’t.
Participants must identify a priority problem, design an agent to address it, test its impact and explore how it could become a scalable product, service or business. Registration closes in December 2026, with a prototype, pitch deck and demo video required.
Three introductory workshops on agentic AI come first. In November, the Digital Academy opens with four advanced courses, four practical workshops and mentorship sessions. Applications go through dubaichamberdigital.com.
The Create Apps Championship drew 15,564 applications from 153 countries across three editions, producing 1,700 prototypes and supported more than 140 app launches. The third edition alone received 9,754 entries.
ZOOM OUT - Dubai wants to be the world’s leading city for agentic AI adoption, across both public and private sectors. In May, Sheikh Hamdan launched a two-year programme for private firms, with training, incubators and dedicated funds. One month later Dubai set targets of 295,000 companies equipped with agentic AI, 100 specialised AI assistants and 50 new agentic AI companies. Dubai Chambers has also signed an MoU with India’s NASSCOM to draw Indian deeptech firms to the emirate. Most recently, the government accelerator for 33 entities and the Create AI Agents Championship followed.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]
Source: Government of Dubai
Read about more Dubai’s agentic AI initiatives:
Dubai launches agentic AI accelerator for government (Middle East AI News)
Abu Dhabi, Dubai rank in EMEA top five by AI Cities Index (Middle East AI News)
Dubai government adopts AI workforce productivity system (Middle East AI News)
Dubai Chambers, India’s NASSCOM partner on Agentic AI (Middle East AI News)
Dubai plans to equip 295,000 firms with Agentic AI (Middle East AI News)