#UAE #education - The UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence H.E. Omar Sultan Al Olama has announced that registrations are open for the seventh cohort of the national Artificial Intelligence Programme, which will run from September 2026 to January 2027. Led by the National Program for Artificial Intelligence in partnership with the University of Birmingham, the new cohort places particular focus on generative and agentic AI. The programme has graduated more than 450 professionals from over 100 government and private-sector entities since launch. The changes to the programme directly support the UAE Government’s drive to shift 50 percent of government operations to agentic AI-powered models within two years.
SO WHAT? - The UAE’s agentic AI transformation targets depend on having people who actually understand how to build, deploy and govern these systems, not just a government mandate to adopt them. The cohort’s expanded focus on agentic AI was expected and it keeps the AI Programme in step with the broader government push to embed Agentic AI across 50 percent of operations and services. So, the new cohort of UAE business and government leaders will benefit from both the programme’s well-established curricula and the timely agentic AI update.
KEY POINTS:
The UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence H.E. Omar Sultan Al Olama has announced the opening of registrations for the seventh cohort of the national Artificial Intelligence Programme.
The new training cohort runs from September 2026 to January 2027, led by the National Program for Artificial Intelligence in collaboration with the University of Birmingham.
The AI Programme is delivered via five specialised modules covering generative and agentic AI concepts, data strategies for machine learning, and the applications and governance of agentic AI systems.
Two tracks are on offer:
A Technical Track for developers and engineers covering architecture, programming and model development, and
A Professional Track for leaders and strategists focused on governance, vendor assessment and digital adoption planning.
Participants learn from an international faculty including Professor Nigel Mehdi a Fellow of Kellogg College, University of Oxford, Professor Kashif Rajpoot of the University of Birmingham, Dr David Johnson of Uppsala University, and Dr Farah Shamout of NYU Abu Dhabi.
Since its launch, the programme has graduated more than 450 professionals from over 100 government and private-sector entities, many of whom now hold leadership positions within their organisations.
The programme supports the UAE Government’s broader push to transition 50% of government sectors, services and operations to agentic AI-powered operating models within two years, a target described as a first-of-its-kind global initiative.
Employees from government, semi-government and private-sector organisations can register for the programme by contacting Program@ai.gov.ae.
ZOOM OUT - This ‘Artificial Intelligenge Program’ is one of many government-led education initiatives, designed to impact AI knowledge, skills and literacy at all levels of UAE society. Last week, the eighth UAE AI Camp opened in Dubai, running for two weeks and delivering public-access workshops on everything from fraud detection to generative and agentic AI. Organised in partnership with Google, Microsoft, Intel and Accenture, the AI Camp has drawn more than 34,000 participants across its previous seven editions.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]
Source: UAE Government
LINKS
Find out more or apply for the AI Programme (UAE AI Office website)
Read more about AI education in the UAE:
Eighth UAE AI Camp opens next week (Middle East AI News)
Dubai university launches design and AI degree (Middle East AI News)
UAE ranks top in MENA on QS World Future Skills Index (Middle East AI News)
Abu Dhabi launches AI policy training for leaders (Middle East AI News)
Education ministry to transform itself with Project NOVA (Middle East AI News)