Dubai’s Crown Price, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is bullish on infusing agentic AI into the Emirate’s private sector. By 2028, Dubai plans to fuel over 295,000 companies with over 100 specialised Agentic AI solutions.
On Thursday, Sheikh Hamdan chaired a high-level meeting with the Committee of the Future Technology Development and the Digital Economy to chalk out Dubai’s roadmap on adopting this advanced technology.
“Our goal is for Dubai to become the world’s leading hub for developing and deploying advanced AI solutions, with the private sector playing a central role in driving this transformation,” said the 43-year-old Crown Prince of Dubai.
Calling AI a major driving factor in the ongoing global economic revamp, Sheikh Hamdan said, the technology is making way for an array of new financial opportunities and business avenues.
In order to be ready to host and support these evolving industrial developments, Dubai will now see the execution of an AI adoption executive plan — focussed on advancing agentic AI into its private sector and business ecosystem.
Real estate, tourism, financial services, healthcare, as well as wholesale and retail trade make for high-yeilding branches of Dubai’s private sector. In the next two years, as per Sheikh Hamdan’s AI strategy, these industries will become primary beneficiaries of the AI advancements in Dubai.
“Our objective is to position Dubai as the world’s leading hub for artificial intelligence, supported by a highly attractive regulatory ecosystem and a private sector driving this transformation,” he noted.
Dubai, over the years, has earned a reputation of regulating advanced technologies. In March 2022, it became one of the first regions in the world to have established a standalone regulatory body to oversee the digital assets sector. After launching Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), Dubai positioned itself as a crypto hotspot with industry giants like Binance and ByBit flocking to set up shops in the Emirate.
As of now, Dubai does not have a standalone AI authority or legislation, however, this could change in the next two years under Sheikh Hamdan’s oversight.
Other regions like the U.K., E.U., and the U.S. have already started first steps towards regulating AI in their respective jurisdictions.
Meanwhile Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, has already stepped into a major AI overhaul. In May 2025, Abu Dhabi started working on a next-gen AI infrastructure cluster called Stargate UAE. The initiative is part of the U.S.-originated Stargate project that includes companies like OpenAI, SoftBank Group, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign AI investment fund, MGX among others.
Stargate UAE is being built as a 1-gigawatt (GW) compute cluster housed inside a massive 10-square-mile, 5-gigawatt UAE–U.S. AI Campus. The first 200-megawatt phase is slated to go live in sometime in 2026.
UAE PM, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has also expressed a bullish sentiment around AI exploration in the country.
Last month, Sheikh Mohammed met with the Cabinet at Qasr Al Watan in Abu Dhabi to discuss how he plans to train 80,000 government employees in agentic AI — starting with ministers and executive officials and eventually tapping officials across ministries.
In the first nine months of 2025, Dubai’s GDP grew 4.7% year-on-year to approximately AED 355 billion.
