UAE weather body deploys its first AI agents
NCM rolls out agentic AI for forecasting, with two assistants for human forecasters
#UAE #AgenticAI — The UAE’s National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) has launched the country’s first agentic AI assistants for the meteorological sector, deploying two tools, Al Rasid and Forecaster Assistant, into its operational forecasting centres. The Abu Dhabi-based national weather authority has also approved a roadmap to expand the technology into climate services, aviation meteorology, seismology and air quality monitoring. The goal is faster response times, sharper analytical accuracy and stronger decision support for meteorologists, while keeping final calls in human hands.
SO WHAT? — The initiative is thought to be one of the first real-world deployments of agentic AI in weather forecasting globally. The Al Rasid agent runs around the clock cross-referencing radar, satellite, seismic and air quality feeds, while Forecaster Assistant compares outputs from multiple global prediction models and drafts bulletins. The agents are part of an active operational layer using live meteorological data, putting the UAE ahead of most national weather services still running pilot projects rather than live, integrated AI systems.
The National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) has deployed two agentic AI assistants, Al Rasid and Forecaster Assistant, marking the UAE’s first use of agentic AI in the meteorological sector, as part of a wider roadmap covering additional operational domains.
Al Rasid monitors data continuously from NCM’s weather stations, radars, satellites, seismic networks and air quality stations, issuing real-time visual alerts when readings cross set thresholds and producing daily national weather briefings.
Forecaster Assistant compares outputs from multiple global numerical weather prediction models, flags forecast uncertainty and discrepancies, drafts preliminary weather and marine bulletins, and builds a hazard dashboard for the days ahead.
NCM Director General Dr Abdulla Ahmed Al Mandous, who also serves as President of the World Meteorological Organisation, said the technology is meant to support specialists rather than replace them, with experts retaining final authority over all decisions.
All AI-generated output goes through review and approval by qualified specialists before publication, following international AI governance standards.
The roadmap will extend agentic AI into climate services, multi-hazard early warning, air quality monitoring, aviation meteorology, seismology and media communications.
The system runs on a governance framework covering data protection, explainability of outputs, full traceability of decisions and ongoing performance evaluation against defined indicators.
The launch is positioned as part of the UAE’s broader push to embed AI across government operations and strengthen the country’s resilience to climate-related events.
ZOOM OUT — The new NCM agentic AI rollout aligns closely with the federal government initiative announced in April to deploy agentic AI across 50 percent of government sectors, services and operations. The world-first government implementation framework aims to move government from digital transformation into autonomous, intelligence-driven operations. Ministers and entity heads are now being assessed on how fast they adopt agentic AI, making the NCM’s two assistants an early test case for a target that applies across the federal government.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]
Source: Emirates News Agency, MEAIN
Read more about the UAE’s agentic AI roll-out:
AD Ports inaugurates AI command centre (Middle East AI News)
Government bodies target 75% AI agent deployment (Middle East AI News)
UAE creates federal AI & data authority (Middle East AI News)
UAE 90-day agentic AI sprint across 50 federal entities (Middle East AI News)
The UAE has cracked the code on government AI (Middle East AI News)