Abu Dhabi launches AiNative training for government staff and the public

Abu Dhabi’s Department of Government Enablement launched AiNative on 7 October 2026, with a target of training 20,000 government employees in AI by the end of the year. The government announcement published by Zawya says DGE developed the programme with OpenAI, Microsoft and Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI). An initial government pilot is under way, and free training for the public will follow.

DGE owns the AiNative curriculum

DGE announced AiNative at the Ai Everything Abu Dhabi conference. Its courses are arranged as separate learning journeys for government employees and the public, with a dedicated programme for department leaders. DGE owns the curriculum and says it can add further partners over time. That leaves the department responsible for the course of study, while OpenAI, Microsoft and MBZUAI have helped shape it.

The target for 20,000 employees sits within a broader workforce programme. The government announcement describes AiNative as training intended for every government employee, while setting the end-of-2026 figure for those it aims to upskill this year. Wesam Lootah, DGE’s director general of GovDigital, said the purpose was to give staff and the wider community practical skills for responsible use at work and in daily life.

DGE has begun with a pilot inside government. The public programme comes later in the rollout, according to the announcement. The department is also planning function-specific certifications in subsequent phases, including courses in coding and data. Those courses would take the training beyond an introduction to commonly available tools and into tasks associated with particular roles.

ChatGPT, Codex and Copilot enter staff training

For government employees, AiNative covers ChatGPT, Codex and Microsoft 365 Copilot as tools for everyday work. The courses are intended to teach their use alongside responsible practice. The executive programme gives department leaders a separate route through the training, rather than placing them in the same foundation courses as other staff.

In July, Abu Dhabi announced the rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot to 35,000 government employees through its Frontier Employee Programme, The National reported. AiNative brings instruction in Copilot into the department’s curriculum alongside tools from OpenAI. The earlier rollout concerns access to a product; the new target concerns employees trained by the end of 2026.

Amr Kamel, Microsoft UAE’s general manager, said training in Copilot was intended to help staff use it responsibly in their work. Farouk El Hamzawi, OpenAI’s head of enterprise for the Middle East and North Africa, said employees would need the skills and confidence to apply AI as tools take on more complex tasks. Both statements describe what the partners want the training to achieve.

Tomouh provides the public route

Citizens and residents will be able to reach the public courses through Tomouh, DGE’s learning app, using UAE Pass to sign in. The public programme is free and will use the free version of ChatGPT. Its subjects include personal finances, running a small business, job searches and studying, as well as responsible creation of online content.

Those subjects give AiNative a remit beyond the government’s own offices. Government staff are being taught to apply named products to their duties, while the public courses address tasks people choose for themselves. DGE is using the same curriculum programme for both groups, with different routes through it and a separate course for senior officials.

Eric Xing, MBZUAI’s president and university professor, said the courses should develop judgement about when and how to apply AI, alongside practical knowledge. The university is one of the three organisations working with DGE on the curriculum. The government pilot precedes public access through Tomouh.

Abu Dhabi’s Digital Strategy runs to 2027

Abu Dhabi’s government says AiNative forms part of its ambition to become the world’s first AI-native government by 2027. The emirate set out its Digital Strategy 2025-2027 last year. Led by DGE, the strategy allocates Dh13 billion ($3.5 billion) to digital infrastructure and aims to automate 100 per cent of government processes while integrating sovereign cloud computing across government operations.

The strategy is projected to add more than Dh24 billion to Abu Dhabi’s economic output by 2027 and generate more than 5,000 jobs in aid of Emiratisation, The National reported.