Overview
- AI minister Omar Sultan Al Olama said the UAE counts more than 1,500 pure AI firms today and is targeting 10,000 within five years, with policy framed around tangible quality-of-life gains.
- A new certification will rank companies from D to S based on UAE presence, R&D and headquarters, with government buyers required to favor higher-ranked firms in tenders.
- Microsoft outlined expanded UAE datacentre capacity with data residency assurances and said it trained 100,000 government employees last year, targeting one million learners by 2027.
- Cyber authorities and industry experts flagged accelerating AI-enabled threats, including a surge in deepfakes and 3.2 million EMEA DDoS attacks in H1 2025, with the UAE facing the longest average DDoS duration at 27 minutes.
- The UAE Cybersecurity Council advanced a whole-of-society Cyber Pulse initiative, embedded AI and cyber ethics in school curricula from early years, and ran major national and international cyber exercises involving more than 100 countries.