The Third Edition Of The UAE AI Award Is Now Open For Applications

The UAE Council for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain—the government entity tasked with implementing the nation’s strategy to become a global leader in AI by 2031—has opened applications for the third edition of the UAE AI Award, which, this year, will spotlight innovation in agentic AI.

In its latest edition, the UAE AI Award aims to recognize government entities, private organizations, academic institutions, and individuals using agentic AI to improve government performance, enhance public services, and support community wellbeing. The initiative also aligns with the UAE's broader government transformation strategy, which targets integrating agentic AI into 50 percent of government sectors, services, and operations to boost productivity, improve efficiency, introduce new models of government service delivery, and strengthen long-term institutional readiness.

In a statement, HE Omar Sultan Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for AI, said that the UAE AI Award supports the country’s efforts to expand the adoption of agentic AI across the government, while also reinforcing the nation’s position in the development and deployment of advanced technologies. He also noted that the third edition establishes a national benchmark for excellence by recognizing initiatives that demonstrate how agentic AI can deliver measurable improvements in government services and operations while strengthening the UAE's global competitiveness.

This year's edition of the UAE AI Award features five categories. The Excellence in Agentic AI-Powered Services category will recognize entities that use agentic AI to improve services, operational efficiency, and customer experience, while the Best Government-Private Partnership in Agentic AI shall recognize collaborations that support digital transformation. In addition, the Agentic AI Solutions Developed in the UAE category shall highlight locally developed AI technologies that showcase national innovation, and the Agentic AI Scientific Research category will honor research that advances both knowledge and practical applications. Finally, there is the AI Leader category, which shall recognize individuals driving AI adoption, building organizational capabilities, and leading transformational initiatives.

Applications will be evaluated against five key criteria. Judges will assess the scalability and replicability of the solutions, measuring whether they can be implemented across multiple UAE government entities and beyond, alongside the level of AI maturity, which assesses readiness for wider government adoption, and the level of innovation, reflecting the originality and advancement of AI technologies applied to government use cases. The evaluation will also consider AI ethics compliance, including the integration of principles such as fairness, transparency, and privacy into AI development and deployment, as well as the level of impact based on each solution's potential to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, or reach of government services.

Federal and local government entities, semi-government organizations, private sector companies, academic institutions, and individuals can apply for the UAE AI Award on this link.