The UAE's new AI and Data Authority: what changes for entities and suppliers

In the UAE, AI policy, government data and digital services used to sit in different places. On 14 June 2026 that changed. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum approved the Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority and described it as “the single national body responsible for data, artificial intelligence and digital government in the UAE.”

For a federal or local entity, and for any company that sells to them, the question is practical: who do we now answer to, and what will we be asked to show?

What was announced

According to the UAE Media Office, the Authority:

• operates under the Cabinet
• is chaired by Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence
• consolidates the functions of three bodies: the Office of Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications; the Digital Government Sector at the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority; and the UAE Data Office

The stated mandate is broad. It includes unifying national directions for a digital government built on agentic AI, proposing policies, legislation and strategies, and aligning federal and local digital initiatives. It also covers national AI strategy, government data quality and sharing, AI-powered national data platforms, proactive digital services, and support for government information security.

One line matters most for buyers: the Authority will set standards and guidelines for data, AI, digital transformation and government services, and ensure federal compliance.

Why one body matters

Before, an entity could be told one thing about data by one office and another about AI or digital services by a different one. Three consequences follow from consolidation.

Before	Likely effect now
Separate offices for AI, data and digital government	One owner for standards across all three
Data sharing treated as a data question	Data sharing tied directly to AI and service design
AI pilots judged on their own	AI judged as part of the service and the data it uses

The announcement does not publish the new standards or a timeline for them. Nobody outside government knows yet what they will say. What the structure does tell us is where the requirements will come from, and that they will probably be consistent across the three areas.

What entities should do now

1. Treat data quality as an AI prerequisite. The Authority is mandated to manage the quality, availability and sharing of government data across federal entities. An agent that depends on a record from another entity only works if that record is clean, current and shareable. Start with the data inventory for your top services.

2. Map every service to a named owner. Agentic services need a business owner, a defined scope and a human who signs decisions with legal effect. This was already good design for the 50% agentic target; a single standards body makes it the likely minimum.

3. Keep evidence, not just dashboards. Per service: what the agent does, what a person still decides, volumes, error rate, and how errors were found. Entities that can produce this on request will not be scrambling when standards arrive.

4. Align local and federal initiatives early. The mandate includes aligning digital initiatives between federal and local levels. Emirate-level programmes in Dubai and Abu Dhabi should expect closer coordination on data and service design.

What suppliers should do now

Vendors should avoid guessing at unpublished rules, and should prepare for the ones that are predictable:

• Be explicit about where data and models run. In-country operation and data residency answers should be a one-page fact sheet, not a sales claim.
• Ship audit and handover by default. Logs of what the agent saw, decided and escalated, and a clear human override.
• Support open interfaces. A single national structure favours platforms that connect to shared data services rather than closed pilots.
• Separate product claims from evidence. Offer evaluation results on Arabic and English tasks, with the method, so the entity can repeat them.
• Plan for change. Contract for standards updates, so a new guideline does not turn into a change request that stalls delivery.

This is a design checklist, not legal advice. Entities should confirm obligations with their legal and compliance teams as the Authority publishes guidance.

What to watch next

• Publication of the first standards and guidelines for data, AI and digital government
• How the Authority reports on progress against the Cabinet’s two-year agentic target
• Any procurement guidance that refers to the new standards
• How the three merged teams combine their existing programmes and platforms

How GridStudio helps

GridStudio is headquartered in Dubai and works with government and regulated enterprises on AI that can be audited. We run the service and data inventory, design AI governance and compliance controls, connect agents to existing systems through enterprise AI integration, and build the data and retrieval layer the agents depend on. See our work for government and the public sector and our UAE page.