UAE chief AI officers get peek into future tech during US tour

The UAE's 50 chief artificial intelligence officers are gaining exposure to some of the latest technologies, including those yet to come to market, during their 10-day US tour where they are visiting some of the world’s largest technology companies.

The programme, which began on September 14, has taken the group from California’s Bay Area to Seattle, where they will spend the next two days meeting executives at Amazon and Microsoft. The delegation has already visited Meta, Google, OpenAI, Palantir and Nvidia and IBM.

“We wanted to make sure that chief AI officers are not just waiting for products to come to the market and then figuring out how to use them,” Dr Abdelrahman Al Mahmoud, director at the AI, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications Office and organiser of the delegation, told The National.

“We are with them, looking at technologies that haven’t been released yet. Some of them nobody has seen so far. They have been very generous to show us things they are working on that will be released in the next three to five years.”

He added that the UAE is determined to be among the first to pilot such innovations.

“I want to assure you that I’m going to push as much as we can to make us really the leader and be the first to get access to this,” said Dr Al Mahmoud.

The trip, organised in collaboration with the Dubai Centre for Artificial Intelligence, is aimed at providing UAE officials with direct exposure to research, early-stage technologies and international best practices, while also boosting partnerships.

UAE’s AI vision

The visit comes as the UAE accelerates its AI agenda under Vision 2031, which aims to position the country among the world’s leading digital economies.

Earlier this year, Dubai launched an AI Seal to certify businesses using the technology responsibly, unveiled an academy to train specialists, and introduced a global index ranking cities by AI adoption.

Officials say the US trip aims to provide decision-makers a closer view of frontier developments globally.

Speaking to The National during the Silicon Valley leg of the trip, Amal Abdulrahim, chief AI and innovation officer at the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, described the experience as “eye-opening”.

At Google, officials explored AI solutions for climate action, biodiversity and satellite imaging, while Nvidia and IBM showcased systems for climate modelling and early warning, she said.

“We honestly were privileged to experience some of their advanced AI solutions,” she added.

The technologies are particularly relevant for her ministry, which oversees biodiversity, marine life, agriculture and food security.

While major companies have already built promising technologies, many remain at an early stage and need to be tested in different contexts, Ms Abdulrahim said.

Given the UAE’s diverse population, fast-growing economy and complex environmental landscape, she said the country is well-positioned to pilot and adapt these innovations.

“They need to be piloted, studied and applied in the right use cases,” she said.

While no agreements have yet been announced, Ms Abdulrahim said discussions are advancing.

“I can’t disclose the MoUs [memorandums of understanding], but we are working closely with some of the companies to sign MoUs,” she said, adding that these would extend “not only in the area of climate change, but also to my colleagues in their own fields”.

New partnerships

The delegation’s visit has also included high-level meetings organised by the US-UAE Business Council.

More than 180 executives and officials attended the San Francisco-based gathering, which featured discussions on technology collaboration and public-private partnerships.

“The delegation visit of UAE government AI leaders comes at a critical moment in the growing high tech and AI relationship between the US and the UAE,” said Danny Sebright, president of the US-UAE Business Council. “Our two countries are poised to push forward in significant new areas of joint investment, co-development, and deployment and the UAE is quickly becoming the top global partner for the US in this domain.

Officials also highlighted the importance of AI adoption across government and growing importance of international co-operation to address cyber risks.

Ms Abdulrahim said the delegation explored opportunities for joint work with several companies.

“We identified some areas where we can collaborate with these companies in terms of pilot projects,” she said, adding that capacity building was also part of the discussion.

She explained that the UAE’s role is to identify the challenges, provide the right data sets and work with companies to pilot new technologies.

“With AI, we really can accelerate the journey toward a sustainable and technology-driven future for our government.”

Dr Al Mahmoud echoed that the scale of discussions was significant. “I’ve seen some very interesting partnerships start to take shape on very big topics … like climate change and energy,” he said.

He cited Nvidia as a key company for collaboration. “Nvidia is a very close partner and a very close friend,” he said. While he was not able to confirm any forthcoming agreements, it was “definitely worth staying on the lookout and seeing what’s happening”.

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Turning exposure into outcome

The delegation’s Seattle programme will focus on cloud services, generative AI and enterprise applications at Amazon and Microsoft.

Once back in the UAE, the officers will reconvene to share lessons from the trip and identify which projects can be pursued immediately.

“The first thing that will happen is we're going to have a roundtable between all of the chief AI officers to reconvene and exchange our thoughts around what is going to be the next step,” Dr Al Mahmoud said.

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Delegates, he said, were already identifying projects they could pursue quickly, but the broader goal was to create a shared approach.

“The trip is happening so fast. We're seeing so many companies, so many technologies, different approaches … but we also want to approach it from the point of view of a collective direction, how are we going to look at this,” he said.

The visit marks one of the most extensive international outreach efforts yet for the UAE’s new cadre of AI leaders.

The coming weeks are expected to bring follow-up discussions, debriefings and, potentially, formal agreements, signalling how the UAE intends to turn exposure in the US into practical steps for its AI-driven future.

Kyle Fitzgerald contributed to this report from Washington