The UAE government holds a workshop on applying assistive artificial intelligence with the participation of more than 50 ministries and federal entities

Abu Dhabi, June 10, 2017, WAM – In embodiment of the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State, may God protect him, and within the framework of the announcement of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, may God protect him, about the new system of the UAE government that aims to transform 50% of the operations and services of the federal government into “Agentic AI” models within two years, the UAE government organized a specialized workshop. To develop and apply assistive artificial intelligence in operations, institutional support, and government services, with the participation of more than 50 ministries and federal entities, and more than 300 officials and specialists in various areas of government work.

The workshop, which was organized by the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs in Dubai, aimed to launch the implementation paths of the new government system project, and begin activating the paths of government services, operations and institutional support within the system, in addition to inventorying government services and operations in ministries and federal agencies in preparation for applying AI-assisted models to them, and following up on their implementation within 90 days.

His Excellency Mohammed Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and Chairman of the National Committee for the Assistive Artificial Intelligence Project, confirmed that organizing the workshop comes as a translation of the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, may God protect him, to accelerate the adoption of assistive artificial intelligence applications and employ them in various areas of government work, in a way that enhances the efficiency of government performance, improves the quality of services, and supports the UAE’s goals in building a more flexible and future-ready government.

His Excellency said: “The UAE is establishing its global leadership in adopting the best government practices by developing flexible work models that employ the capabilities of assistive artificial intelligence, as adopting artificial intelligence represents an advanced stage in the process of developing government work, because of the qualitative capabilities it provides that contribute to supporting employees, accelerating the completion of tasks, enhancing productivity, and developing decision-making mechanisms based on data and knowledge, which reflects positively on the efficiency of government work and the quality of its outputs.”

His Excellency added: “Through this workshop, we aim to enable federal government competencies to benefit from applications of assistive artificial intelligence, and to develop their skills in employing modern tools and technologies within work environments, in line with the UAE’s trends to consolidate its global leadership in adopting best practices, and developing innovative government business models that capitalize on the opportunities offered by advanced technology.”

For her part, Her Excellency Maryam bint Ahmed Al Hammadi, Minister of State and Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers, Head of the Operations and Institutional Support Track of the Assistive Artificial Intelligence Project, confirmed during her speech at the workshop that the UAE government aims, through the Operations and Institutional Support track, to remove restrictions and achieve a qualitative leap in government work in the UAE.

Her Excellency stated that the work of the process began by inventorying the operations in the ministries and federal agencies, and identifying the priority processes to transform them into models for assistive artificial intelligence, in addition to inventorying the existing applications and those being developed by the federal agencies, leading to the preparation of an implementation plan for the assistive artificial intelligence project for the operations track at the federal government level.

Her Excellency added that the course of operations in the workshop witnessed the identification of 10 main axes, with the participation of more than 140 officials and specialists from various federal government agencies, which included human resources, procurement and contracts, financial and administrative affairs, legislative affairs, internal audit, digital transformation and technical support, facilities management and maintenance, in addition to joint operations and other operations in ministries and federal agencies.

His Excellency Mohammed bin Taliah, Assistant Minister of Cabinet Affairs for Government Knowledge Exchange Affairs and Head of the Services Track, reviewed the government work model for the next stage, which aims to enable government agencies to identify and choose priority services and processes to apply assistive artificial intelligence models to, in a way that ensures achieving the highest possible impact on society with its various categories of individuals and institutions, and enhancing the quality and efficiency of government services. His Excellency stressed that government work teams possess the competencies, expertise, and spirit of innovation necessary to achieve qualitative successes in employing assistive artificial intelligence, pointing out that the UAE has proven throughout its development journey its ability to transform ambitions into tangible achievements, and that challenges have always constituted an additional incentive to continue leadership and develop globally inspiring government business models.

The workshop participants discussed the criteria for selecting priority operations for transformation, which included the intensity and size of operations, the level of complexity of the service, the number of annual transactions, the number of beneficiaries, and the nature of the beneficiary groups, in addition to the extent of readiness of operations/services for transformation, through clarity and documentation of procedures, availability of updated data, level of automation and outputs, in addition to evaluating the expected impact on the quality of services, cost efficiency, and customer and beneficiary satisfaction levels.

The framework of the workshop included each government entity selecting a specific service or process to apply assistive artificial intelligence, to be launched within 90 days, through three main stages that include: the exploration stage to choose the appropriate service or process, the design stage to develop the targeted journey, and the stage of preparing the implementation plan, which focuses on determining the application requirements and initial implementation plans. During the three-month work period, implementation will be monitored periodically with the work teams in government agencies, ensuring the provision of the necessary support, achieving the goals, and launching the services that the agencies have chosen to apply assistive artificial intelligence within the specified time frame.

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