Tech giants Microsoft and G42 have joined forces to fuel UAE government’s goal of injecting agentic AI into its public and private sectors within the next two years. In an announcement shared with The Coin Headlines on Monday, G42 said its sovereign agentic AI firm, Inception42, will work alongside Microsoft to create an enterprise-grade agentic AI ecosystem native to the UAE.
AI in focus, tech titans at work
Microsoft, under the partnership, will serve as the frontend delivery layer for this AI ecosystem and fuel the technical execution force for the partnership.
Meanwhile, Inception42 will use its Catalyst operation system (OS) as the core orchestration engine to build and govern this ecosystem for autonomous AI agents. which UAE’s government sectors and corporate offices will be able to use these agents to simplify the handling of everyday work flows.
“Demand for agents is moving faster than any single platform can meet on its own, and this puts Inception42 and Microsoft in a position to meet that demand together. This integration reflects how sovereignty and interoperability work together,” said Ashish Koshy, CEO, Inception42.
As a sovereign agentic AI company, Inception42 would keep all of the data processed on its platform strictly within the UAE borders. This will safeguard sensitive national data to be retained safely within the country itself.
With Microsoft teaming up for G42, any agent built on Catalyst would be compatible to work on Copilot and vice versa. This will eliminate the need for setting up separate infrastructures to power a wide range of AI agents.
“We are helping governments and enterprises accelerate innovation while maintaining control, security and compliance by enabling agents to run with data processed in country and integrated into the tools people use every day,” Amr Kamel, General Manager, Microsoft UAE noted in the official statement.
UAE’s AI adoption target
After positioning itself as a regulated hub for crypto activities and stablecoin adoption, the UAE has now set its eye on scaling its AI adoption.
In April this year, the UAE Cabinet said it is targeting the deployment of agentic AI solutions across 50 percent of its government sectors by 2028.
“Our government will be the first government in the world to largely deploy Agentic AI models across its government sectors and operations,” His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum had said at the time, chairing the Cabinet meeting.
G42, which is a UAE-founded company, said its agentic AI efforts with Microsoft are intended to assist the UAE government hit this goal.
The rulers of the UAE have advised the country’s key ministers, directors generals, and corporate entities to start work on adopting AI and show speed in implementing new techical and cybersecurity standards.
In June, Dubai’s Crown Price, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum also chaired a high-level meeting with the Committee of the Future Technology Development and the Digital Economy. A massive push to AI exploration was the main agenda of this meeting.
Sheikh Hamdan envisions powering over 295,000 companies with over 100 specialised Agentic AI solutions in Dubai alone. While Abu Dhabi is chalking out the AI adoption roadmap for all of the UAE, keeping government sector in focus, Sheikh Hamdan said Dubai’s private sector should lead its AI scaling initiatives.
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.
UAE’s tangible AI-centric steps so far
Just a few weeks ago, the UAE’s Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology held an interactive service-development council in Dubai. Here, the attendees were given a chance to see how AI can improve industrial government services, gather investor feedback, and stitch a 100-day action plan.
In May, the UAE unveiled its first Agentic AI agents for government services, covering procurement, tax auditing, customer service and technical support.
Most recently, Dubai’s Grand Millennium Hotel introduced — Zaya, a virtual personality created to turn the hotel’s dining, nightlife and guest experiences into an ongoing AI-led social media narrative.
As of now, the UAE lacks a dedicated regulatory framework to oversee the AI sector. The UAE, however, does govern the AI industry under federal data laws, strict ethical frameworks, sector-specific guidelines.
In June, UAE PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid established the UAE Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority. This federal body is intended to unify oversight around AI and design a solid single national framework to govern the ongoing AI developments.
