The collaboration aims to train the workforce of 80,000 as agentic AI experts across all occupational categories
[Image source: Chetan Jha/MITSMR Middle East]
Shortly after unveiling four AI agents for public service, the UAE has announced a strategic knowledge partnership with Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) to further accelerate the country’s AI momentum.
The aim is to build agentic AI expertise across the federal government workforce.
The UAE government and MBZUAI will collaborate to boost institutional readiness, cultivate national AI skills, and enable responsible deployment of AI across federal ministries and government entities through executive education and targeted capability-building programs.
The partnership will support the national program, which is set to train 80,000 federal employees as agentic AI experts across all occupational categories.
The agreement was formalized in the presence of senior UAE officials, including Minister of Cabinet Affairs HE Mohammad bin Abdullah Al Gergawi and MBZUAI Board Chairman HE Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak.
Her Excellency Ohood bint Khalfan Al Roumi, Minister of State for Government Development and the Future and Chairwoman of the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAHR), calls the partnership a model collaboration between government and premier national academic institutions, aimed at equipping civil servants with the practical skills and knowledge to design and deliver next‑generation public services.
“Since the UAE’s founding, our leadership has held that people are the nation’s true wealth. Agentic AI reinforces this belief. A government powered by AI is built on far more than the technologies it holds. Its success rests on human competence, trained minds, sound judgement, and the values of the people who guide it,” said His Excellency Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Secretary General of the Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technology Council and Chairman of MBZUAI’s Board of Trustees.
“Our purpose is clear: to develop and deploy AI responsibly and inclusively in service of our communities,” he added.
Other key announcements made by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, such as the federal AI workforce training initiative and 50% of federal government operations being powered by “agentic AI” within two years, mark a pivotal moment in the UAE’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy.
The country is betting big on AI to accelerate its shift from an oil‑dependent economy to a knowledge‑based, globally competitive digital hub by 2030. Although Vision 2030 was conceived in 2008, its current momentum is largely powered by the suite of AI initiatives now being implemented.