The UAE is one of the few countries developing its own advanced foundation models, an ambitious step beyond simply adopting existing AI systems, the World Bank said.
In its World Development Report 2026: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence, the World Bank said the most advanced parts of the AI economy remain heavily concentrated, with only a limited number of countries able to build cutting-edge models, data centers and hardware at scale.
The United States and China continue to dominate much of the global AI landscape, while the UAE stands out among a smaller group attempting to develop greater domestic capability.
UAE moves further up the AI value chain
The UAE’s position places it closer to what the World Bank describes as the “advance” stage of AI development.
The report divides national strategies into three broad pathways: adopting existing AI, adapting systems to local needs and advancing the technology itself.
For most developing economies, the World Bank argues that adoption and adaptation offer the fastest and most affordable gains, while building sophisticated foundation models from scratch demands substantially more capital, infrastructure and specialist talent.
That ambition comes with a steep price, with the World Bank saying projected capital spending by major AI hyperscalers now exceeds the annual economic output of many countries, underscoring how costly it has become to compete at the technological frontier.
Deployment emerges as another pillar of AI growth
While the race to build advanced models is intensifying, the report says the broader economic gains from AI will also depend on how widely countries apply the technology across businesses, public services and everyday economic activity.
The report estimates that fewer than 10 percent of jobs in developing economies could be automated by AI, compared with more than one-third in wealthier countries, while about one in six jobs in developing economies could instead benefit from AI assisting workers rather than replacing them.
Adoption is already gathering pace, with about one in five small firms surveyed across six developing economies using AI chatbots, a rate only modestly below that of the United States.
The World Bank also cited early evidence of practical gains, with AI-assisted medical imaging increasing daily screening for diabetes-related eye disease by 40 percent in Bangladesh and AI weather forecasts saving small farmers in India’s Telangana state as much as $560 each.
In Ghana, an AI tutoring system delivered learning gains equivalent to nearly a year of mathematics instruction for about $5 per student.
AI gains will hinge on both capability and deployment
The report’s broader message is that countries can capture the biggest gains by combining strong domestic AI capabilities with wide adoption across businesses, public services and strategic industries, supported by investment in skills, infrastructure, data and governance.
For the UAE, developing its own foundation models alongside wider AI adoption strengthens its position as global competition for models, computing power and specialist talent intensifies.
