ABU DHABI (ALETIHAD)

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance at a rapid pace, Abu Dhabi is emerging as a global hub for AI innovation. The UAE's recent ranking as 5th globally in the Stanford Global AI Power Rankings 2024 reinforces this with a Silicon Valley-like tech ecosystem beginning to take shape in the capital.

Building on the momentum, the AI ecosystem has two critical pillars to strengthen – deep tech investment expertise and access to top AI talent.

MBZUAI Incubation and Entrepreneurship Center (MIEC), which celebrates a year of operation, is playing a crucial role in addressing both areas through its unique position as the region's first AI-native incubator.

The centre's impact is already evident through the growth of nine startups in its portfolio. These ventures have demonstrated remarkable potential, attracting new external funding that exceeds internal grant funding by eight times – showcasing how MIEC's unique blend of technical substance, business acumen, and local market understanding helps ventures scale.

"We're proud that MBZUAI, the world's first AI university, has quickly emerged as a powerful catalyst that transforms AI ideas into ambitious start-ups that will contribute to the high-tech innovation landscape in the UAE. The university is advantageously positioned to champion a culture of entrepreneurship with our world-renowned faculty and industry relationships," said MBZUAI President and University Professor Eric Xing.

As part of its growth and building on its unique value proposition, MIEC is introducing an AI-focused Mentors Network that connects international AI veterans and investors with the start-up founders.
The network has launched with Professor Steve Liu, Associate VP of Research at MBZUAI, Co-founder of Proactive AI Lab; Professor Elizabeth Churchill, Department Chair of Human-Computer Interaction at MBZUAI; Dr. Hao Li, Associate Professor at MBZUAI, Founder and CEO of Pinscreen; Abdulaziz Shikh Al Sagha, General Partner at BECO Capital; Franklin Urteaga, Former White House Tech Adviser, Co-Founder and CEO of Oigetit.ai; Julien Pageaud, Managing Partner at Sparkle Ventures; Mohamad Charafidden, VP of Data & AI at Careem; Yousef Barkawie, Partner and AI & Data Analytics lead for Middle East at Deloitte. 

"Through MIEC, we are reinforcing our promise to train the next generation of AI leadership and innovators," Xing added.

The AI business landscape is on the ascendancy as figures recently released by Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry showed a year-on-year growth of 41.3% of new AI companies in H1 2024, bringing the total of AI companies in the emirate to more than 400.

This growth signals the increasing maturity of Abu Dhabi's AI ecosystem, while highlighting the importance of specialized support in deep tech validation and talent development.

"MIEC was established as part of MBZUAI's core mission to emphasize innovation in AI and its role in addressing real-world challenges. MIEC empowers founders with funding and expertise and has successfully co-created with aspiring tech founders to transform coding to businesses," explains Sultan Al Hajji, Vice President for Public Affairs and Alumni Relations at MBZUAI. 

Coding AI Expertise for Market Success

MBZUAI has a strong culture of entrepreneurship that runs throughout its faculty, including but not limited to Department Chair and Professor of Robotics Yoshihiko Nakamura, who is founder and CEO of Kinescopic Inc.; Professor of Computer Vision, Ivan Laptev, co-founder of VisionLabs; Associate Professor of Computer Vision and Director of MBZUAI Metaverse Center, Hao Li, founder of Pinscreen; and Assistant Professor of Natural Language Processing, Ekaterina Kochmar, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Korbit AI.

Alongside mentorship, MIEC also introduced its IEC Grant initiative, designed to empower founders from the University with important funding, and Entrepreneurship Workshops, which aim to foster practitioner-oriented learning.

The workshops have received 200 applications from students and researchers so far, with 100 participants graduating, and 17 start-ups delivering pitches. More than 80 hours of workshops and mentorship have taken place to date, with experts from within the University joined by external guests from OpenAI, Microsoft, AWS, and elsewhere to provide founders with personalised training.

"These workshops are vital in an academic setting, where most students lack real-world business experience," says Al Hajj. "By embedding entrepreneurial training into their academic journey, MIEC ensures students graduate with both technical expertise and a business mindset, making them highly sought-after in the job market or as future founders."

To boost this learning and business knowledge, MIEC launched a bi-weekly newsletter, Insights Minute.  In an era of overwhelming AI developments, the newsletter turns AI noise into strategic signals, delivering curated insights that help the MIEC community navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape with clarity and purpose.

And the learning doesn't stop there. MIEC also hosts a 'Palmside AI Chat' series, bringing global insights to enrich the local ecosystem through leaders from tech companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Careem, and OpenAI. More than 300 participants have joined the sessions to date, creating a vital bridge between international AI expertise and Abu Dhabi's growing tech community.

Championing AI in Abu Dhabi

Working within a wider ecosystem, MIEC has been proactive about fostering partnerships across Abu Dhabi and beyond in a bid to expand its network and potential. The center's partners and collaborators include startAD, Hub71, Sandooq Al Qatan, Microsoft Founders Hub, Shorooq Partners, BECO Capital, Nvidia, e& Capital, and others.

Building on its partner network, MIEC runs two external-facing programmes to extend its impact across Abu Dhabi:

•    The AI Venturepad Program cultivates local AI talent and solutions to address local challenges by providing comprehensive support to participants, including mentorship, global product-building perks, and exposure.

•    The Trailblazers Program helps to identify and empower promising young Emirati AI talents who will enrich the UAE's entrepreneurial ecosystem and drive broader adoption of AI across strategic sectors. 

In its first year, through its partnership with the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED), MIEC developed a chatbot to assist Abu Dhabi SMEs. After hosting a competition across Abu Dhabi universities, which saw more than 1,000 students apply to help develop the solution, the SME AI Chatbot is almost ready to launch. More than 200 users have already signed up to the waitlist.As Abu Dhabi continues its journey towards becoming a global AI hub, MIEC's unique approach of combining deep technical expertise with market understanding, positions it as a crucial bridge between innovation and commercial success. The centre is actively shaping an ecosystem where AI ventures can thrive and scale, contributing to Abu Dhabi's vision for the future.