UAE to deploy agentic AI across 50% of government
UAE government sets two-year deadline for agentic AI transformation
#UAE #digitalgovernment — His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has announced a new UAE government framework to deploy agentic AI across 50 percent of government sectors, services and operations within two years. A world first, under the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the framework moves the UAE beyond digital transformation into autonomous, intelligence-driven government. As part of the framework, AI systems will be designed to monitor changes, manage operations, execute decisions and introduce improvements in real time without human intervention. A dedicated taskforce chaired by Minister of Cabinet Affairs H.E. Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi will drive execution, overseen by His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
SO WHAT? — Today's agentic AI framework is the latest in a sequence of government AI deployments that have been systematically implemented by the UAE Cabinet. The country already operates the world's first AI-powered Proactive Government Performance System, tracking over 150 million data points monthly and generating more than 50,000 proactive insights annually. It has embedded AI into its three-year federal strategic planning cycle across 38 entities. It has approved an AI-powered regulatory intelligence ecosystem designed to accelerate law-making by up to 70 percent. No other government has moved to implement AI across the three layers of performance, planning and legislation at such speed and scale. The agentic AI framework looks likely to become the operational layer that connects them all.
KEY POINTS:
The UAE will implement a world-first framework to transform 50% of government sectors, services and operations to agentic AI within two years. Autonomous systems will be designed to perform tasks proactively, manage operations independently and introduce real-time improvements without human intervention.
The news was announced by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, following a UAE Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
The new agentic AI framework sets the direction for the next phase of a 20-year government digital transformation journey that began with eGovernment and progressed through mobile government, UAE Pass and Government Services 2.0.
A dedicated taskforce has been formed to drive execution, overseen by H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and chaired by Minister of Cabinet Affairs H.E. Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, with phased implementation across ministries and federal entities based on continuous performance and impact assessment.
Ministers, directors general and government entity heads will be assessed on their speed and capability in adopting agentic AI, making technology transformation a direct measure of leadership performance across the federal government during the two-year implementation period.
All federal government employees will receive continuous specialised AI training as part of the transformation. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid stated that the goal is to produce some of the world’s best experts in government AI transformation, embedding capability across the workforce rather than concentrating it in specialist units.
The framework redesigns government policies, processes and procedures around AI capabilities, enabling smart systems to perform tasks proactively and accurately. The new framework is expected to reduce operational costs, boost productivity and deliver faster, more efficient public services.
The UAE Cabinet simultaneously approved three supporting policy frameworks: a government services digital records policy establishing digital records as the official source of core data; a government services data sharing policy based on collecting data once and using it securely across entities; and a federal guide aligning digital government projects with national priorities.
The UAE has been building toward this moment since 2017, when it became the first country in the world to appoint a Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence and launched the UAE Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2031.
The Cabinet also approved a unified Digital Postal Addressing System to enhance logistics, geospatial capabilities and smart city development, alongside a Geographical Indication framework to protect and promote national products.
ZOOM OUT — The agentic AI framework builds on a pattern of deliberate, structured government AI deployment that has been accelerating across the UAE. In April 2025, the UAE Cabinet approved a first-of-its-kind AI-powered regulatory intelligence ecosystem, to monitor the real-time impact of laws on the economy and society, recommend legislative updates based on data analysis, and accelerate the process of drafting and enacting new laws by up to 70 percent. A new Regulatory Intelligence Office was established within the Cabinet to oversee it, with a unified legislative map linking all federal and local laws with judicial rulings, executive procedures and public services. Taken together, the regulatory intelligence ecosystem and the new agentic AI framework represent a coherent and far-reaching strategy.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]
Read more about the UAE government’s pioneering implementation of AI:
UAE unveils regulatory intelligence ecosystem whitepaper (Middle East AI News)
UAE deploys AI system to improve performance (Middle East AI News)
UAE embeds AI at the core of government planning cycle (Middle East AI News)
UAE embraces future with government-wide AI advisors (Middle East AI News)
UAE approves first-of-its-kind AI regulatory ecosystem (Middle East AI News)