AI: the UAE’s power move

UAE

With bold investments, strategic global partnerships and cutting-edge models, the UAE is accelerating its vision towards becoming a global hub for AI innovation and pushing its capabilities for the energy transition. After years of developing operational improvements in oil and gas production, ADNOC and a group of technological and industrial partners are harnessing promising AI applications, with the next few years promising to deliver numerous breakthroughs in large-scale implementation.

The UAE has entered the global AI race and is making a slew of investments to create a creative ecosystem for technology entrepreneurs and developers and positioning itself to become a prominent regional AI hub. In its National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, the country has outlined a bold plan to become the world leader in AI by 2031. It is already well on its way with the integration of advanced digital systems in government operations and key national industries, as well as the design of wide-reaching regulatory frameworks for AI and the establishment of an investment roadmap across key sectors such as logistics, healthcare and green energy. This AI blueprint aims to be the driving impetus for achieving the UAE Centennial 2071 vision of placing the UAE at the centre of the global AI industry, with top domestic expertise and companies at the forefront of technological innovation.

In 2024, the UAE channelled USD 546 million in government spending and sovereign funds into AI companies, compared with the US Government’s USD 51 million and the UK’s USD 99 million. This and other initiatives have helped drive the creation of Falcon, an open-source large language model (LLM) developed by Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC). It was considered one of the most advanced AI models globally upon its launch, and in December 2024, ATRC unveiled Falcon 3, which introduced superior reasoning and can run on lightweight infrastructure such as laptops. The upgrade was met with resounding success, earning the top spot on Hugging Face’s global third-party LLM leaderboard.

Global collaboration in AI

To build strong foundations for its talent, research and production capabilities, the UAE has been active in cross-border discussions and signed important international agreements with parties that align with its AI goals. In September 2024, the UAE and the USA signed an agreement to collaborate on R&D towards establishing safe and secure international AI frameworks and enhancing cybersecurity. The agreement also seeks to facilitate knowledge exchange and nurture top AI talent to create new pathways for shared technological development and bolsters the US-UAE Partnership for Accelerating Clean Energy, which focuses on energy efficiency and technology for the global clean energy transition.

The USA and UAE are also encouraging collaborations among their largest private-sector companies. In April 2024, US technology giant Microsoft agreed to invest USD 1.5 billion in a minority stake in the UAE’s flagship AI holding company G42. Since its launch in 2018, the Emirati player has grown into a company of 25,000 and constructed data centres and cloud facilities across the Middle East and Africa. G42 is also a key partner for other top tech companies, including OpenAI, IBM, Nvidia, Oracle and life sciences and genetics leader Illumina. Joining them, supercomputer giant Cerebras Systems is spearheading a powerful constellation of various of the world’s largest AI supercomputers in collaboration with G42, including the new Condor Galaxy 3 launched in March 2024.

In May 2025, the US and UAE signed an agreement for the establishment of an AI campus in Abu Dhabi powered by US-made AI chips. G42 will spearhead the construction of the 25-square-kilometre conglomerate, which will will serve as a regional hub for AI innovation and support hyperscalers and cloud providers with power sourced from nuclear, solar and gas generation to contain carbon emissions.

AI for energy

The UAE’s aggressive push into AI is motivated in no small part by a desire to leverage advanced systems to optimise operations in conventional energy sectors and introduce technologies to diversify the nation’s energy mix. In 2020, ADNOC and G42 formed AIQ, a strategic 60-40 joint venture to develop and commercialise AI innovations for the oil and gas sector. So far, the company has developed more than 20 AI tools across its core divisions: AIQ Perform for process control and performance optimisation, AIQ Protect for monitoring and predictive maintenance and AIQ Sustain for asset decarbonisation.

AIQ’s tools have gained traction in global markets through strategic collaborations with international companies and successful deployments within ADNOC’s operations. For example, in partnership with oilfield technology giant SLB, AIQ launched the Advanced Reservoir 360 tool that tracks and visualises the performance of upstream operations to develop automated field development plans. As of October 2024, the company had deployed the AI-driven tool across more than 30 of ADNOC’s oil and gas plays, including the Bab and Umm Shaif fields.

Another AIQ product, RoboWell, is the world’s first AI-controlled autonomous operating platform for gas-lifted wells. It assists in well stabilisation by considering a wide range of operating constraints in real time and has already been deployed across 10 wells at ADNOC’s fully digital Nasr offshore field, where other solutions are also in place to minimise emissions. The autonomous well control technology is set for broad expansion, with planned applications in over 300 wells across ADNOC’s operations by the end of 2024.

ADNOC has applied AIQ’s DrillRep and OptiDrill processes at its offshore Satah Al Razboot field, a move which contributed to reaching production of 140,000 bopd, a 25% increase. The tools analyse daily drilling reports and data from rig sensors to provide insights that help enhance the drilling process. The implementation of these and other technologies is an integral part of ADNOC’s plans to boost production at the field to 5 million bopd by 2027 while lowering carbon emissions and increasing safety.

AIQ has also seen major success with its Neuron 5 AI-enabled autonomous monitoring system, developed in partnership with UK industrial software company AVEVA Group. In September 2024, ADNOC announced a plan to expand the deployment of the technology across all its facilities, following successful pilot deployments at its onshore North East Bab field and the Taweelah gas compression facility. The rollout will eventually be extended to cover thousands of ADNOC’s production units, including compressors, valves and generators. Pilot results indicate that the new tool could reduce unplanned shutdowns by up to 50% and extend planned maintenance intervals by 20%.

However, AIQ’s largest and most anticipated system has been ENERGYai, which was unveiled at ADIPEC 2024 after three years of development. It is the world’s first large-scale agentic AI tool designed specifically for the energy industry and combines a 70-billion-parameter LLM with ADNOC’s massive repository of oil and gas operational data to enable real-time decision making and improve operations across the entire energy value chain – from seismic analysis to drilling, reservoir modelling, corrosion detection and production analysis. AIQ completed its first 90-day proof-of-concept trial of ENERGYai in January 2025, and the first scalable and industry-ready model is expected to be completed in 2025. It will be deployed across numerous upstream assets in ADNOC’s portfolio.

Cross-integration

Alongside its success with AI platforms in the oil and gas sector, AIQ has also secured high-profile agreements to expand its technologies into other branches of industry. For example, AIQ signed an MoU with the UAE’s BEEAH in May 2023 to develop implementations in waste management and transport. The company is also making inroads into logistics through an agreement signed with geospatial technology company Bayanat to automate the movement and maintenance of drilling rigs. The project involves developing custom software to improve co-ordination and minimise the distances travelled by rigs during relocation, reducing operational costs and emissions.

In one of its first forays into markets outside the Middle East, AIQ partnered with Malaysian NOC Petronas to jointly develop and pilot new AI-based products. Additionally, AIQ partnered with global oilfield services provider Halliburton to integrate RoboWell into Halliburton’s iEnergy hybrid cloud suite, opening up further potential for international market adoption.

Moving forward, ADNOC is prioritising AI as a driver of economic diversification, energy sector efficiency and decarbonisation. At ADIPEC 2024, ADNOC CEO H.E. Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber noted, “We stand at the dawn of a new era of hope and possibility, defined by three megatrends: The rise of the global south and emerging markets, the transformation of energy systems and the exponential growth of artificial intelligence.” He underlined the imperative of being an early adopter and the company’s continued efforts to remain at the forefront of AI development, for the company sees it as “a strategic imperative to drive efficiency, unlock value, enhance growth, lower emissions and future-proof our business.”

Photo by Igor Omilaev

Read our latest insights on:

• UAE
• USA