The UAE is deepening its relationship with Microsoft, as the government pushes to meet its own deadline to automate at least half of the public sector’s work using AI agents.
Microsoft’s Copilot software is already on 35,000 Abu Dhabi government employees’ computers. Now, Inception42, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi AI conglomerate G42, is building agents that can work with the Microsoft AI platform to assist with tasks like buying goods and services — in the right quantities and at competitive prices — to keep the country running smoothly. “Success is when it’s invisible,” Inception42 CEO Ashish Koshy told Semafor. With a population of around 11 million, the UAE is a small but meaningful test case for automating government services at a time when most countries are taking a more cautious approach.
Microsoft’s ties to the emirates are already significant: It has committed $15.2 billion to the country by 2030 and taken a stake in G42. Microsoft President Brad Smith previously told Semafor the company has broad ambitions for the UAE, seeing it as a gateway for computing power and data storage across the wider region.