The UAE has positioned technology and artificial intelligence at the centre of its national development agenda, with a stated ambition to grow the digital economy to 20 percent of GDP by 2031. The National AI Strategy 2031, one of the first of its kind globally when initially launched in 2017 and subsequently updated, targets leadership across nine sectors including transport, health, energy, and government services. The strategy is backed by institutional infrastructure that few countries in the region can match: MBZUAI (Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence), the world’s first graduate-level AI research university; G42, the Abu Dhabi-headquartered AI and cloud computing group with strategic partnerships including Microsoft; and a government apparatus that has embedded AI and digital transformation into the operational architecture of every federal ministry.
Smart government is not a slogan in the UAE — it is a measurable programme. The UAE Government Digital Services Strategy mandates that 100 percent of federal services be delivered digitally, with AI-assisted processing reducing transaction times and eliminating paper-based workflows across immigration, licensing, healthcare, and judicial services. The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) governs the digital infrastructure layer, while entities like the Dubai Future Foundation and Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC) drive forward-looking research and commercialisation in areas including autonomous systems, blockchain, quantum computing, and space technology.
This section provides intelligence coverage of the UAE’s technology ecosystem. It tracks AI deployment across government and enterprise, the growth of the digital economy, cloud and data centre infrastructure expansion, semiconductor and chip strategy, cybersecurity frameworks, and the commercial trajectories of the major technology entities. Each article connects developments to the KPI targets embedded in We the UAE 2031 and the broader ambition to establish the UAE as a global technology hub.