The UAE capital brings together global AI leaders, investors and innovators as it positions itself at the centre of the emerging intelligence economy

Abu Dhabi is making a case for a larger role in the global AI economy.

The 2026 edition of Ai Everything Abu Dhabi, the world’s largest AI-first Expo and Summit, opened at ADNEC Centre with more than 400 exhibitors, 180 speakers and 200 investors representing an international ecosystem spanning more than 70 countries.

But beyond the scale of the gathering, the event is a reflection of a much bigger ambition: to build the infrastructure, capabilities and government systems that could define Abu Dhabi’s position in the AI era.

Hosted by the Abu Dhabi Department of Government Enablement (DGE) and organised by inD, with Solutions+, a Mubadala company, as Global Partner, the two-day summit brings together governments, frontier AI companies, investors and startups to explore what comes next as artificial intelligence moves from experimentation into national-scale deployment.

Building the Foundations of an AI-Native Government

At the centre of the opening day was Abu Dhabi’s ambition to become the world’s first AI-native government by 2027.

Opening the summit, H.E. Ahmed Tamim Hisham Al Kuttab, Chairman of DGE, framed the opportunity around a simple reality: the countries building AI foundations today will have an increasingly significant advantage in the years ahead.

“Societies that start building the foundations today will pull ahead every year, and those that wait will find the gap harder to close.”

For Al Kuttab, those foundations come down to three critical ingredients: compute, capital and customers willing to go first — resources Abu Dhabi is seeking to bring together within its growing technology ecosystem.

The message is less about predicting the future of AI and more about building the conditions required to shape it.

From AI Adoption to Sovereign Capability

The conversation then moved from infrastructure to sovereignty.

H.E. Faisal Al Bannai, Adviser to the UAE President and Secretary General of the Advanced Technology Research Council, positioned AI as a core state capability, highlighting the UAE’s approach of adopting leading global models while developing its own sovereign capabilities.

The strategy reflects a distinctly pragmatic approach: move quickly, adopt the best available technology, build domestic expertise and maintain the flexibility to adapt as the technology evolves.

“Our competitive edge is our focus on deploying practical use cases that can propel the country forward.”

That focus on practical deployment is increasingly becoming a defining feature of the UAE’s AI strategy — turning technological ambition into applications across government and industry.

The Global Race for AI Sovereignty

The question of who controls the foundations of AI was also explored by Arthur Mensch, Co-Founder and CEO of Mistral AI, during his first appearance at an AI summit in Abu Dhabi.

Mensch pointed to growing demand for technology that gives enterprises greater control over deployment, intellectual property and infrastructure.

His argument reflects a wider shift in the global AI market: as governments and businesses become more dependent on AI, portability, sovereignty and strategic control are becoming as important as model performance.

For economies outside the dominant US and Chinese technology ecosystems, that creates an opportunity to develop alternative technology partnerships and capabilities.

When AI Becomes a Creative Force

AI Everything also moved beyond infrastructure and government, offering a glimpse into how artificial intelligence is reshaping creative industries.

Tilly Norwood, presented as the world’s first AI-generated virtual actress, appeared live on stage to discuss her upcoming feature film debut in Misaligned.

Created by Particle6, Tilly demonstrated how AI is beginning to challenge traditional assumptions about filmmaking, performance and production.

Tom Davidson, Chief Creative Officer of Particle6, compared the transformation to the arrival of animation, where individual elements of a production can be created and modified without rebuilding an entire film from scratch.

Tilly’s live interaction with the audience — including responses in Arabic and other languages — offered a particularly visible example of AI moving from behind the technology layer into mainstream cultural experiences.

The Infrastructure Behind the Intelligence

Across the exhibition floor, the conversation became more tangible.

H3C showcased an integrated AI infrastructure spanning compute, networking, storage, cloud, security and operations, reflecting the growing demand for systems capable of moving organisations from AI experimentation into production.

Seagate focused on another increasingly critical part of the equation: data storage.

As AI generates and processes unprecedented volumes of information, the infrastructure required to store that data reliably and efficiently is becoming a fundamental part of the AI economy.

Regional innovators are also moving towards commercialisation.

Sharjah Research Technology & Innovation Park’s SPARK AI Hub showcased applications ranging from AI concierge systems and intelligent government assistants to computer vision, enterprise agents and digital humans.

Meanwhile, Khalifa University Enterprises Company (KUEC) presented ventures emerging from its commercialisation pipeline across healthcare, government, industry and sustainability — bringing research and innovation closer to potential investors, corporate partners and public-sector adopters.

Abu Dhabi’s Next Chapter in AI

The significance of Ai Everything Abu Dhabi lies in what is happening beyond the exhibition floor.

AI is increasingly becoming a question of infrastructure, national capability, government transformation, investment and economic competitiveness — and Abu Dhabi is positioning itself accordingly.

The ambition is not simply to participate in the AI revolution.

It is to build the foundations on which the next generation of AI-driven economies can operate.

As the summit continues, the central question is no longer whether AI will reshape economies and institutions. It is who will build, govern and scale the systems that make that transformation possible.

Abu Dhabi is making clear that it intends to be part of that group.