Dubai Future Foundation announced the launch of its Agentic AI for Government Services Accelerator on 5 October in a press release published by GoDubai. Run under Dubai Future Accelerators, the programme will bring government bodies together with technology companies to develop services using agentic AI. The Dubai Centre for Artificial Intelligence is organising it with Digital Dubai and the Dubai Electronic Security Center.
Key points
- Thirty-three Dubai government entities will join the first phase.
- The programme will assess more than 300 public-facing use cases for further development.
- Participating entities will work with companies certified under the Dubai AI Seal.
- Dubai’s electronic security centre says its security frameworks will guide government adoption.
33 entities and more than 300 use cases
The first phase will include 33 Dubai government entities. The accelerator will examine more than 300 public-facing use cases and select those judged to have the greatest potential for development with agentic AI, according to the foundation’s announcement. That places the selection of services ahead of the prototyping work: the programme is described as a way for government teams to develop and test applications before moving them into use.
The programme uses the operating model of Dubai Future Accelerators, which brings government entities and private-sector partners together to prototype solutions. The foundation says the new accelerator is intended to help agencies shorten the time taken to design, develop and deploy services while meeting requirements for quality and digital compliance. Those are the foundation’s aims for the programme, rather than reported results from the services it will produce.
Participating government entities will work with technology companies certified under the Dubai AI Seal. The seal is an initiative of the Dubai Centre for Artificial Intelligence, which the foundation oversees. The announcement describes the seal as a means of recognising trusted AI companies and supporting growth in Dubai’s AI sector. For this accelerator, that certification determines which technology companies the participating entities will work with.
Khalfan Juma Belhoul, chief executive of Dubai Future Foundation, tied the launch to directives from Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and chairman of the foundation’s board of trustees. Belhoul said government entities could shorten established development cycles and improve their services through AI. He also argued that Dubai’s infrastructure and regulatory environment would enable agencies to improve the quality of their services rapidly.
Digital Dubai puts data into service design
Digital Dubai’s role in the accelerator concerns the systems and governance used across government services. Its director general, Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, said the authority was supporting the partnership through integrated digital infrastructure, trusted data and governance frameworks for AI use. He described the aim as turning promising use cases into services that could be deployed more broadly, with agencies and technology companies contributing their respective expertise.
Al Mansoori said the work should begin with changes in people’s needs rather than only with their current requests. In his account, data and AI could help government services anticipate those needs and offer more personalised interactions. That ambition gives the programme a public-facing test as well as a technical one: the use cases under consideration concern services people would encounter, rather than only work within government offices.
He also described participation across the agencies as a matter of shared responsibility. Digital Dubai, the AI centre, the security centre, government entities and certified companies each have a place in the programme set out by the foundation. The agencies will bring potential services for development; the accelerator will assess use cases; and the technology companies will work with the participating entities on applications selected for further work.
Dubai Electronic Security Center names its frameworks
The Dubai Electronic Security Center is the third authority collaborating on the accelerator. Its chief executive, Yousuf Hamad Al Shaibani, said the centre’s role was to put security, governance and trust into the development of agentic AI services from the beginning. He identified the Information Security Regulation in Dubai and the AI Security Policy as frameworks through which the centre provides government entities with guidance on adopting the technology.
Al Shaibani said cybersecurity needed to be addressed during planning, design, operation and monitoring. He presented the centre’s frameworks as support for agencies seeking to use agentic AI autonomously while maintaining compliance, data protection and digital resilience. The announcement describes that guidance alongside the programme’s goal of faster development, placing security work within the process agencies will use to build services.
The foundation says the accelerator will use AI to identify tasks, examine different datasets and model scenarios as teams develop applications. Its planned sequence then takes those applications through testing before implementation for customers. In its first phase, the accelerator will assess more than 300 public-facing use cases, with 33 Dubai government entities participating.
