His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has approved the establishment of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority, a new federal body designed to lead the national AI strategy, manage government data across the country, and drive the digital economy’s contribution to UAE gross domestic product. The decision, announced on 14 June 2026, represents one of the most consequential AI governance announcements ever made by the country and signals that the UAE’s AI strategy is now moving from being executed by multiple coordinated initiatives across many entities to being directed by a single dedicated federal authority with comprehensive mandate.
The new Authority arrives at a moment of extraordinary AI momentum in the UAE. The country is the world’s leading AI adopter with 70.1 percent working-age usage, hosts the fastest-growing AI talent concentration globally with 121 percent growth between 2019 and 2025, has projected AI contribution to GDP exceeding $96 billion by 2031, is building the 5-gigawatt UAE-US AI campus in Abu Dhabi, has enacted the world’s first comprehensive national AI legislation through the AI Act 2026, and is host to an expanding series of frontier AI launches including the world’s first AI-powered voice payment system. The Authority will provide the coordinated federal direction needed to ensure this remarkable momentum is sustained and amplified over the coming years.
What the Authority Will Actually Do
Understanding the significance of the new Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority requires appreciating the breadth of its mandate and how it relates to the various existing AI initiatives across the UAE.
Leading the National AI Strategy
The Authority’s most fundamental responsibility is to develop and lead the national AI strategy. This includes maintaining and updating the strategic framework that guides AI investment, policy formation, talent development, infrastructure deployment and ecosystem building across the country. Where previous AI strategy work has been distributed across multiple entities, the new Authority will provide unified strategic direction and coordination.
Managing Government Data
Beyond strategy, the Authority is tasked with managing government data across the federal government. This is a substantial responsibility given the scale of UAE government data assets and the increasingly central role that data plays in AI deployment. The Authority will be responsible for ensuring that government data is appropriately classified, secured, made available where appropriate for AI applications, and integrated across entities in ways that enable AI capabilities to operate effectively.
Growing Digital Economy GDP Contribution
The Authority has been given explicit responsibility for increasing the digital economy’s contribution to UAE GDP. The current digital economy share of approximately 12 percent of GDP is targeted to exceed 20 percent by 2031, with AI specifically projected to contribute approximately $96 billion to GDP by the same date. The Authority will be the federal entity responsible for ensuring these economic targets are achieved.
Coordinating Across Federal Entities
The Authority will coordinate AI activities across the various federal entities including the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources, the Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, and many others that are already deploying AI within their respective domains. The coordination ensures that individual entity efforts align with broader national strategy and benefit from shared infrastructure and capabilities.
Why a federal authority now: As UAE AI deployment has expanded across virtually every dimension of government and economy, the need for unified federal direction has become increasingly clear. The new Authority provides the structure to ensure that the next phase of AI transformation is executed with the coherence and pace that the country’s ambitions require.
The Strategic Context: AI Momentum at Historic Scale
The new Authority arrives during a period of extraordinary UAE AI momentum that few other countries can match.
World-Leading AI Adoption
The UAE’s 70.1 percent working-age AI adoption rate, confirmed by the Microsoft AI Diffusion Report Q1 2026, makes it the first economy globally to cross the 70 percent threshold. The broad population engagement with AI creates conditions for substantial economic activity and supports the broader AI transformation that the Authority will direct.
Top Global AI Talent Growth
UAE AI talent concentration grew 121 percent between 2019 and 2025, the highest rate of any country globally. The combination of attracting international AI talent through the Golden Visa programme and developing local talent through institutions including MBZUAI, the Dubai AI Academy and the new National Experts Program (NEP-AI) ensures sustained human capability for AI deployment.
Frontier AI Infrastructure
The 5-gigawatt UAE-US AI campus rising in Abu Dhabi represents the largest concentration of AI computing infrastructure outside the United States. Combined with substantial parallel investments including the Microsoft $15.2 billion UAE infrastructure commitment, the DIEZ-VOLT data centre development, the du sovereign industrial AI platform, and the various Khazna facilities, the country’s AI compute capacity is at the global frontier.
The AI Act 2026 Regulatory Framework
The world’s first comprehensive national AI legislation, effective March 2026, provides regulatory certainty that enables substantial AI investment with confidence about compliance requirements. The new Authority will play a central role in interpreting and applying the AI Act framework across federal AI activities.
Strategic Partnerships at Scale
The depth of UAE partnerships with leading global AI organisations is extraordinary. The Stargate UAE consortium with OpenAI, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco and SoftBank. The Dubai Holding-Microsoft enterprise AI partnership. The Aither joint venture between Dubai Holding and Palantir. The next-generation NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GB300 chip deployment. The Positron AI DIFC presence. Each major partnership contributes to a comprehensive global AI engagement that the new Authority will help to coordinate and extend.
Connection to Other Recent Initiatives
The Authority’s announcement comes within days of several other major UAE AI initiatives that together demonstrate the pace of activity.
The Sheikh Hamdan Digital Economy Push
Earlier this month, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed approved new digital economy initiatives including expanded Agentic AI programmes, a new digital talent network, and Dubai’s hosting of the ICPC World Finals 2026. These initiatives complement the new federal Authority by strengthening Dubai-specific dimensions of the broader AI transformation.
The 295,000 Firm Transformation Programme
Dubai has unveiled a transformation programme aimed at empowering 295,000 companies across the emirate to become AI-first businesses. The programme represents one of the most extensive AI adoption frameworks announced anywhere in the region and will benefit from the federal coordination that the new Authority provides.
Government 4.0 and the 80,000 Employee Programme
The UAE Cabinet has approved the Government 4.0 project to train 80,000 federal employees in Agentic AI, a substantial expansion of the workforce capability building that supports broader government AI deployment. The training programme aligns with the Authority’s mandate to ensure federal AI capability is comprehensive and coordinated.
The National Experts Program AI Track
The recent launch of the National Experts Program AI Track (NEP-AI) with 32 Emiratis beginning specialised AI leadership development addresses the long-term development of Emirati AI leaders capable of leading the national strategy implementation. The Authority will benefit from this pipeline of national AI leadership talent.
“The establishment of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority signals that the UAE is now moving from broad AI ecosystem development to focused federal direction of the next phase of national AI transformation. The Authority provides the structure needed to coordinate the extraordinary momentum that the country has built and to ensure that this momentum produces measurable outcomes against the ambitious 2031 strategic targets.”
Industry Analysis, UAE National AI Strategy Outlook 2026
Implications for the UAE Public Sector
The Authority’s establishment carries substantial implications for how federal government entities approach AI in the coming years.
Coordinated Strategy Execution
Individual federal entities deploying AI will increasingly do so within a coordinated strategic framework directed by the Authority. This coordination should produce both faster execution and better outcomes than entity-by-entity AI deployment without unified direction.
Shared Infrastructure and Capabilities
The Authority is likely to develop and provide shared AI infrastructure and capabilities that individual federal entities can leverage, reducing duplicative investment and enabling AI deployment by entities that may not have built equivalent capability independently.
Data Governance and Sharing
The Authority’s government data management mandate is particularly consequential because effective AI deployment depends on appropriate data access. The Authority will likely develop frameworks for cross-entity data sharing that enable AI capabilities to work effectively while maintaining appropriate security and privacy protections.
Performance Measurement
The Authority will establish frameworks for measuring AI deployment performance across federal entities, ensuring accountability for delivery against the ambitious targets the country has set. The performance measurement function provides the discipline needed to translate strategic ambitions into measurable outcomes.
Implications for the UAE Private Sector
For UAE businesses across the economy, the Authority’s establishment also carries significant implications.
Private sector AI investments are likely to benefit from clearer national strategic direction that helps companies align their AI activities with the broader trajectory of UAE AI transformation. The Authority’s coordination function may also produce more streamlined regulatory interactions and clearer guidance on compliance requirements.
Companies operating in sectors where federal AI deployment is substantial — including healthcare, financial services, transportation, education and many others — will benefit from coordinated federal counterpart engagement. Where multiple federal entities currently engage individually with private sector AI activity in their domains, the Authority will provide coordinated engagement that should produce better outcomes for both sides.
Companies considering significant AI investment in the UAE can do so with greater confidence that national strategy will support their investments over multi-year horizons. The Authority’s mandate to drive digital economy GDP contribution provides explicit national commitment to growing the AI economy that supports private sector confidence.
Implications for International Engagement
The Authority is likely to play a substantial role in coordinating UAE international AI engagement, including the strategic partnerships with major global AI organisations and the broader pattern of UAE participation in global AI ecosystem development.
International AI companies considering UAE engagement will benefit from having a clear federal counterpart for high-level strategic discussions. The Authority can engage on behalf of the broader federal government in ways that individual entity engagement cannot replicate.
International AI policy discussions including those at the United Nations, the OECD, the G20 and various other multilateral forums will benefit from coordinated UAE representation through the Authority. As global AI governance evolves, having clear national institutional leadership becomes increasingly important.
Looking Forward: The Authority’s First Year and Beyond
The coming months will see the practical work of establishing the Authority including leadership appointment, staffing, organisational structure development, and the initial operational priorities. The Authority will need to build its capabilities while simultaneously delivering on its substantial mandate, requiring careful attention to organisational design and execution capability.
The Authority’s first major deliverables are likely to include refreshed national AI strategy documentation, initial frameworks for cross-entity data sharing, prioritisation guidance for federal AI investments, and the operational structures for ongoing coordination across federal entities. Each of these deliverables will substantially shape how UAE AI transformation unfolds over the coming years.
For the UAE more broadly, the Authority’s establishment marks a transition from the period of ecosystem building to the period of focused execution against strategic targets. The 2031 targets including digital economy share of GDP exceeding 20 percent, AI contribution to GDP of approximately $96 billion, the 10,000 AI companies target, and the various other strategic objectives all require focused federal direction that the Authority will provide.
The Authority’s success will be measured against the achievement of these targets. If the Authority delivers the coordinated execution that its mandate envisions, the UAE will reach 2031 having achieved AI leadership at scales few other countries are positioned to match. The establishment of the Authority represents another decisive step in the country’s comprehensive AI strategy and signals that the next phase of UAE AI transformation is now formally underway.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the new Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority?
The Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority is a new federal body whose establishment was approved by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum on 14 June 2026. The Authority will develop and lead the national AI strategy, manage government data across the federal government, drive the digital economy’s contribution to UAE GDP, and coordinate AI activities across federal entities.
Why is the Authority being established now?
As UAE AI deployment has expanded across virtually every dimension of government and economy, the need for unified federal direction has become increasingly clear. The Authority arrives at a moment of extraordinary AI momentum including 70.1 percent working-age AI adoption (world-leading), 121 percent AI talent growth (2019-2025), the 5GW UAE-US AI campus, the AI Act 2026 regulatory framework, and major strategic partnerships with Microsoft, OpenAI, Palantir, NVIDIA and others.
How does the Authority relate to other UAE AI initiatives?
The Authority will coordinate rather than replace existing initiatives including Dubai’s Sheikh Hamdan digital economy push (with the new 295,000-firm transformation programme), the Government 4.0 project training 80,000 federal employees in Agentic AI, the National Experts Program AI Track (NEP-AI), and the various federal entity AI deployments. The Authority provides the unified federal direction these initiatives need to deliver maximum impact.
What economic targets is the Authority responsible for?
The Authority is explicitly tasked with increasing the digital economy’s contribution to UAE GDP. Current digital economy share of approximately 12 percent is targeted to exceed 20 percent by 2031, with AI specifically projected to contribute approximately $96 billion to GDP by the same date. The Authority will be the federal body responsible for ensuring these economic targets are achieved.
