UAE AI NEWS
Stories
Every UAE AI event, once. Each story gathers every outlet that covered it, summarised in plain words with the original links underneath.
Dubai’s Popcorn AI Studio raises $1 million for Arabic AI filmmaking tools
Popcorn AI Studio, a Dubai startup building AI tools for film and video production, announced a $1 million pre-seed round on 18 October 2026, led by Emirati investor Mohammed Bin Bouta Alharsoosi. Its platform puts scripting, scene generation, voice, lip-sync and editing in one workflow, with a focus on Arabic and its dialects. The details come from the company’s announcement; no product results have been published.
WEF and Bain estimate AI could add over $1 trillion in MENA value by 2030
A World Economic Forum report with Bain & Company, published on 14 October 2026, estimates AI could unlock more than $1 trillion in economic and sustainability value across MENA by 2030. That’s a modelled estimate, not a forecast of what will happen. The report says reaching it depends on using AI for more than small improvements, and on grids, power and water keeping up with data centres.
Sharjah launches Najm, an AI agent that matches investors with sites
Invest in Sharjah launched Najm at the ninth Sharjah Investment Forum on 14 October 2026. It’s an AI agent that turns an investor’s project requirements and budget into matching commercial and industrial sites. Khaleej Times reported that the first phase draws on listings from Bayut and Property Finder and on public property data from Sharjah’s planning department.
ADX connects live market data to ChatGPT and Claude through MCP
The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) said on 13 August 2026 that investors and developers can now query its official live market data through AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Claude. It works through Model Context Protocol (MCP), a standard way to connect AI tools to outside data. ADX says it’s the first exchange in MENA to do this, and access is through subscription plans on its website.
Dubai gives its private sector two years to adopt agentic AI
On 4 May 2026, Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed launched a two-year programme to move Dubai’s private sector to agentic AI. Dubai Chambers was directed to run training for business councils, set up incubators for agentic AI companies and create dedicated funds. In June, Sheikh Hamdan reviewed a roadmap covering 295,000 companies. By September, no amounts had been attached to the incubators or funds.
DIFC plans to become an AI-native financial centre, targeting 25,000 jobs
The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) announced on 21 April 2026 that it will build AI into its laws, business services, training, infrastructure and buildings, and called the result the world’s first AI-native financial centre. It says the programme will bring US$3.5 billion (AED 12.9 billion) in economic value and 25,000 jobs. Those are DIFC’s own projections.
UAE Central Bank sets out how banks and insurers should use AI with customers
The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) announced a guidance note on 23 February 2026 for licensed banks, insurers and other financial institutions using AI and machine learning. It sets principles on governance, fairness, transparency, human oversight and data privacy, and expects more oversight for decisions that matter more to customers. The principles aren’t legally binding, but they set out what the regulator expects.
