For this transition, the govt. has directed the Chamber to establish incubators for Agentic AI companies, create new economic opportunities for young people in the field, and establish designated funds for this purpose.
We connected with industry leaders to understand their views on this announcement.
Jessica Constantinidis, Innovation Officer EMEA, ServiceNow
“For citizens and residents in the UAE, the government’s decision to move to agentic AI means that the administrative interface to government disappears. Today, as an example, a resident or citizen files a request, waits, follows up, maybe has to resubmit and then waits again.
In an agentic model, residents and citizens will have access to:
- Proactive service delivery — as an example, your residency renewal is initiated before you remember it’s due
- Single-interaction resolution — one touchpoint, all agencies coordinated behind the scenes
- Personalized government — services contextualized to your profile, life stage, and needs — not generic forms designed for the average citizen
- Zero-friction crisis response — in emergencies, agents reroute resources, communicate proactively, and adapt services dynamically without waiting for committee approval
The lived experience shifts from dealing with government to government working around you.’’
The aim of this new initiative is to accelerate the adoption of Agentic AI (self-executing and self-leading artificial intelligence) in Dubai’s private sector. With the foresight of becoming the world’s leading city in adopting these technologies economically and commercially, Dubai will gain a competitive edge for the future. All business councils affiliated with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce will be trained under the transformation program over a period of two years. It also advocates a vision to provide new economic opportunities for young people in this field; the Chamber has been directed to establish incubators for AI companies.
Sid Bhatia, Area VP & General Manager – Middle East, Turkey & Africa, Dataiku
“The UAE is positioning itself as a pioneer in digital governance, setting a benchmark for how technology can enhance public service delivery and improve quality of life. The recent agentic AI announcement from the UAE government represents a significant leap toward creating a more efficient, responsive, and citizen-centric government. In practical terms, this means AI will handle routine tasks such as visa processing, licensing, fines, and public service requests, reducing processing times from days to minutes. For residents, citizens and businesses, it translates to faster, more accessible, and round-the-clock government services.
By automating repetitive and time-consuming processes, the government expects to reduce operational costs by 20–40%, allowing for reinvestment in innovation and citizen services. Productivity gains are equally impressive, with AI-driven systems projected to accelerate service delivery by 50–70% in many areas. These gains are expected within the next two years, building on the UAE’s robust digital infrastructure and culture of rapid implementation.”
By transforming the private sector into self-innovating hubs that boost productivity and reduce costs, the new initiative seeks to establish Dubai as a global leader in adopting AI technologies. Dubai is continuously developing an advanced digital infrastructure that underscores the Emirate’s status as one of the world’s most future-ready cities as part of a vision emphasizing data as the ‘oil of the future’.
Hesham Fayed, President, Middle East, Africa & Turkey, DXC Technology
“The significance of the UAE’s move towards agentic AI lies not only in the technology itself, but in the clarity and ambition of the objective. Committing to transition 50% of government services to agentic AI within two years sends a powerful signal about the scale at which the government intends to embrace this next phase of AI-driven transformation. In the Middle East, enterprises have historically taken their cues from government priorities, whether around digital transformation aligned to national vision programmes or cloud adoption shaped by cloud-first strategies. As a result, this announcement is likely to rapidly accelerate the conversation beyond experimentation towards operational transformation, where AI becomes embedded directly into workflows, decision-making and service delivery.
The impact on organisations will be profound because agentic AI does far more than automate isolated tasks. It can autonomously execute complex processes, coordinate actions across functions and continuously optimise outcomes. This will fundamentally reshape workforce dynamics, shifting employees away from routine execution and towards supervision, orchestration and higher-value decision-making. We are already seeing this transformation inside DXC, where around 40% of our engineers today are no longer focused solely on writing code, but instead oversee autonomous software engineering agents across the development lifecycle. Similar shifts are beginning to emerge across IT, operations and customer-facing functions.”
Dubai, which puts digital transformation at the core of the Dubai Economic Agenda (D33) and its objectives for the next decade, has launched several initiatives including DubaiNow, the Dubai Metaverse Strategy, and the Dubai Centre for Artificial Intelligence. The city remains a top destination for investments in emerging technologies because of this ecosystem. These initiatives form a wider ecosystem designed to maintain Dubai’s leadership position in the field of emerging technologies.
Levent Ergin, Chief Strategist for Agentic AI, Regulatory Compliance & Sustainability, Informatica from Salesforce
“The UAE and Dubai’s agentic AI announcements mark an important shift from AI experimentation to AI execution. The real opportunity is not simply automating services faster, but redesigning government and enterprise operations around trusted data, resilient cloud infrastructure, and responsible AI governance. If done well, this could position the UAE as one of the world’s leading hubs for safe, scalable and enterprise-grade agentic AI.
As part of its commitment to its private sector, Dubai continues to support it through what officials describe as an exceptional approach rooted in strategic partnerships and proactive legislation.
The region is dedicated to becoming the world’s leading city for living, working, and investing, the Emirate is also focused on knowledge exchange. It provides a world-class digital infrastructure.”
Arturo Buzzalino, Chief Innovation Officer, Epicor
“The UAE’s decision to accelerate the adoption of agentic AI across government and business is both bold and timely. It reflects a clear understanding that AI is no longer about isolated innovation, it’s about reshaping how organisations operate, make decisions, and deliver value at scale and pace.
For businesses, Agentic AI represents the next phase of digital transformation. Agentic AI only delivers value when it’s grounded in secure, well‑governed data and executed through trusted ERP workflows. Without strong data governance and security, autonomous agents lack the context, controls, and accountability needed to take meaningful action. ERP provides that foundation, connecting AI directly to the operational systems where decisions are made and executed every day.
At Epicor, we believe AI must be practical, secure, and deeply connected to the industries it serves. Through Epicor Prism, organisations interact with AI agents through human‑in‑the‑loop experiences, while behind the scenes those agents execute sophisticated, secure ERP workflows across manufacturing, supply chain, and finance. This approach ensures agents don’t just recommend actions; they carry them out within governed, auditable processes.”
In totality, this vision is about more than technology, it’s about transformation at scale. By enabling businesses to harness Agentic AI, Dubai is setting a new benchmark for productivity, innovation, and economic growth. Under the leadership of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the city is not just adapting to the future but actively shaping it—building a globally unmatched ecosystem where advanced technology, world-class infrastructure, and elevated quality of life converge. The result is clear: a future-ready Dubai that leads, not follows.
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