UAE has been a fertile ground for AI technology for many reasons

From the establishment of telecommunications infrastructure, food security, business and leisure tourism hubs, to the actual moon landing of its successful Mars mission, the UAE government has a proven track record of executing and matching aspirations. Artificial intelligence is just the latest in a series of UAE ambitions that could yield impressive results.

The country was the first in the world to create a Ministry of Artificial Intelligence, which immediately laid out a roadmap to promote the UAE as a knowledge-based society. Much of the roadmap is laid out in the UAE’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2031, and its authors expect AI technologies to “make a significant contribution to education, the economy, government development and community well-being”.

The Ministry of Artificial Intelligence has also been instrumental in launching the National Coder Program, which aims to fill the AI ​​talent gap by attracting 100,000 people with digital skills through incentives such as the Golden Visa.

The UAE’s commitment is more than a statement and public encouragement. It has allocated budgets in the past to fund long-term investments in a range of technologies. Telecom is an example. The infrastructure was built on a massive scale to accommodate more capacity than was initially required, but with the advent of telecom services such as OTT and LTE, these spending paid dividends as the UAE could implement the latest big things faster.

Stakeholders around the world are now recognizing that AI requires strong long-term commitment and a budget mindset to match. The adoption of some technologies requires fundamental changes to the underlying systems, and funding needs to keep pace with these changes.

Leadership and funding have created fertile ground for delivering AI use cases in the UAE. The infrastructure – telecommunications, data centers, cloud services – already exists. This is in stark contrast to its global counterparts.

In many Western countries, the pandemic has refocused funding on critical infrastructure needed for capacity-building projects, hindering any move to a forward-looking AI stance. In the UAE, communication networks have long been dealing with IoT.

Many data lakes have been filled with years or decades of valuable data for advanced analytics and artificial intelligence; and the penetration of the Internet and mobile devices is high enough to drive a digital-first mentality for customer and citizen services.

Another advantage the UAE has over its European counterparts when it comes to taking advantage of AI opportunities is the speed of decision-making. A nod can give the green light, and in the West, due to the complexity of AI as a technology, proposals for change are presented in committee after committee.

The UAE’s incredible growth trajectory shows that more people (and committees) involved in the decision-making process does not necessarily mean better decisions.

Today, government officials can use the data they accumulate to make better decisions. Businesses in the private and public sectors can act confidently in a “fail fast, nimble” culture. My personal experience is that this mentality is still too often associated with brands in most places outside the UAE.

In the next chapter of its AI story, governments will need to take a closer look at AI governance to ensure that all efforts in technology adoption and solution development do not benefit a few, but have wider societal impact Leadership vision.

A recent YouGov study commissioned by Dataiku showed that the UAE leads other countries in AI, which also showed that 67% of UAE managers believe AI and data science will impact their roles. But only 44% of non-managers feel the same way.

When everyone sees AI as a partner in change, they will come together and work together, and widespread economic prosperity will be a natural byproduct.