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The Emirates Intelligencer

An Independent Daily Bulletin on Artificial-Intelligence Investment, Adoption and Deployment. Published by otonomi.co

Vol. I., No. 96 Thursday, October 8, 2026 From the Archive
Government Upskilling
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Abu Dhabi Opens AiNative to 20,000 Government Employees and the Public

The emirate is buying AI skills at national scale, pairing a government-owned curriculum with OpenAI, Microsoft and its own AI university against a 2027 deadline.

By The Otonomi Investment Desk

Abu Dhabi has launched AiNative, a training programme that will give 20,000 government employees practical artificial intelligence skills by the end of 2026 and will later be opened to every citizen and resident in the emirate. The programme was announced at Ai Everything Abu Dhabi by the Department of Government Enablement, which owns the curriculum and developed it with OpenAI, Microsoft and Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence.

Government employees will be trained on ChatGPT, Codex and Microsoft 365 Copilot, with a dedicated executive track for department leaders and specialised certifications in areas such as coding and data to follow in later phases. The public edition will be delivered through Tomouh, the department's artificial intelligence learning application, and will be reachable through the UAE Pass government app using the free version of ChatGPT. It covers everyday uses including managing personal finances, running a small business, finding work, studying and creating content responsibly online. A pilot is already running inside government before the public release.

Wesam Lootah, director general of GovDigital at the Department of Government Enablement, said AI would only create lasting value when people had the knowledge and confidence to use it well, and that AiNative puts that capability at the heart of Abu Dhabi's AI journey. Eric Xing, president of MBZUAI, said developing the capability at scale would be an important part of the emirate's transition to an AI-native government and society. The launch follows the July roll-out of Microsoft 365 Copilot to 35,000 Abu Dhabi government employees under the Frontier Employee Programme, and sits within Abu Dhabi's ambition to become the world's first AI-native government by 2027, underpinned by a $3.5 billion digital infrastructure investment.

The National Read original source

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Life Sciences Capital

Abu Dhabi HELM Cluster Ties AI Drug Discovery to an $11.5 Billion Pipeline

The emirate's Health, Endurance, Longevity and Medicine cluster is projected to attract more than AED42 billion, or $11.5 billion, in investment, contribute more than AED94 billion, or $25.6 billion, to Abu Dhabi's economy and create about 30,000 jobs by 2045, according to a new report on the technologies reshaping global biopharma. The findings, published by World Health Expo with Frost and Sullivan, place genomics, artificial intelligence and local manufacturing at the centre of the United Arab Emirates' next phase of healthcare growth.

The report cites the Emirati Genome Program, which aims to collect one million genetic samples nationwide, and the UAE Reference Genome study, which is analysing more than 50,000 samples. It highlights Insilico Medicine's Abu Dhabi centre, which in 2025 nominated the UAE's first fully AI-discovered preclinical candidates for oncology and non-opioid pain after completing the discovery work in under 12 months, and a June 2026 partnership between the Department of Health in Abu Dhabi and Boehringer Ingelheim to advance precision-medicine research. Frost and Sullivan forecasts growth of more than 10 per cent for precision medicine in the Middle East over the next five to seven years.

WAM Read original source
Innovation Challenge

Dubai Recasts Flagship Apps Contest as a Championship for AI Agents

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, has launched the Create AI Agents Championship, a new form of the Create Apps Championship that shifts the competition from digital applications to autonomous AI-agent systems. The championship forms part of the Create Apps in Dubai initiative led by the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, which supports app development, digital skills and technology entrepreneurship in the emirate.

The third edition of the Create Apps Championship, whose winners were honoured at Emirates Towers Boulevard, drew 9,754 entries. Across its three editions the contest has attracted 15,564 applications from 153 countries, contributed to 1,700 prototypes and supported the launch of more than 140 applications. Sheikh Hamdan said the new championship, which moves into a phase focused on agentic systems, would help make Dubai the first city to lead innovation in the field, and invited innovators from around the world to take part.

WAM Read original source
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Further Dispatches
Public Services

Ajman Puts Business Licence Renewals Behind Agentic AI Assistants

Ajman Government used Ai Everything Abu Dhabi to present a new generation of services in which intelligent assistants complete government procedures on a resident's behalf. Its Ajman Digital Department showed a No-Interface Government Services ecosystem built on agentic AI, which the emirate says builds on its launch of the UAE's first government transaction to renew a business licence using the technology. Under the model, customers express a need and assistants carry out the steps without the customer moving between platforms or filling in forms.

The Ajman Municipality and Planning Department is showing an agentic AI commercial contract renewal service, while the Ajman Department of Finance is presenting a Smart Financial Advisor that eases access to financial information, legislation and documents. Participating through a single pavilion, the emirate's digital, economic development, finance, municipality and free zone bodies are aligning the work with Ajman Vision 2030. Ahood Ali Al Shuhail, director general of the Ajman Digital Department, said no-interface services represented a shift from waiting for requests to anticipating them.

WAM Read original source
Sovereign Cloud

Core42 Opens a Partner Programme to Widen Sovereign AI Supply in the UAE

Core42, the G42 company that supplies sovereign cloud and AI infrastructure, has launched a partner programme that gives software vendors, technology partners, startups and resellers new ways to build and sell cloud and AI services in the United Arab Emirates. The programme opens with a network of more than 50 partners and is built on a cloud environment that already supports more than 47 Abu Dhabi government entities. It was announced on 5 October.

A technology track lets independent software vendors and startups bring their products to the Core42 Sovereign Enabled Public Cloud and build with Microsoft Azure services, while Core42 Insight provides data residency, governance, monitoring and security controls. A channel track allows sellers to take Core42 cloud and AI solutions to customers with specific data residency and compliance requirements, with eligible products available through the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. Ahmed Labib, vice president for partnerships and ecosystems at Core42, said government and regulated industries needed greater choice while retaining clarity over where their data sits and how each workload is governed.

Core42 Read original source
Global AI in Action
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