BATOOL GHAITH (ALETIHAD)
Abu Dhabi is seeking to move Arabic beyond cultural preservation and at the centre of technology, publishing, AI and economic development, as it works to strengthen the language’s role in the global knowledge economy.
Dr Ali Bin Tamim, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, said preservation and production should not be treated as separate ambitions.
“Preserving Arabic gives us the cultural confidence to ensure it remains a living language through which knowledge is created, technology is developed, businesses are built and ideas travel across borders,” Dr Bin Tamim told Aletihad.
More than 450 million people speak Arabic, yet the language represents less than 1% of global digital content and large language model training data, he said.
He described that gap as a global imbalance, which is why Abu Dhabi is taking a convening role by bringing together researchers, creators, investors, policymakers and technology leaders.
“We want to provide a platform where researchers, creators, investors, policymakers and technology leaders can work together to strengthen Arabic’s place in the global knowledge economy,” he said.
For Abu Dhabi to develop further as a hub for Arabic knowledge production, the focus must be on building a connected ecosystem rather than a collection of separate initiatives, Bin Tamim noted, which includes stronger research, better data, publishing and distribution systems, clearer intellectual property frameworks and investment that can help turn ideas into products and sustainable businesses.
He pointed to the Digital Arabic Bookstore, launched by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre with Amazon, which began with around 38,000 books in January and now includes more than 42,000 titles, with more than two million visits.
“We aim to reach 100,000 books next year while supporting Arab publishers with digitisation and metadata that meets global standards,” Bin Tamim added.
“Language infrastructure includes the data, tools, platforms, rights frameworks, funding, production capacity and skills that allow creatives and businesses to create, distribute and benefit from Arabic content and technology,” he said.
Bin Tamim noted that the focus extends beyond Abu Dhabi to the national, regional and international systems needed for the Arabic creative economy to grow.
One of the biggest opportunities is strengthening Arabic’s presence in digital, professional and educational environment, he added.
“Arabic needs better technological tools, richer data and platforms capable of understanding the language in its full diversity, including dialects, cultural context and contemporary usage,” he said.
That digital infrastructure could also support commercial growth across multiple sectors, he added, as stronger Arabic capabilities could enable new AI services, educational tools, publishing models, games, films, media platforms and creative businesses designed for Arabic-speaking audiences from the outset.
“The aim is not simply to translate existing products into Arabic, but to create original technologies, stories and intellectual property that begin with Arabic and compete globally,” he noted.
Bin Tamim said the opportunity could exceed $40 billion annually within the next decade if the necessary systems are developed.
Making Arabic content globally competitive will also require stronger commercial frameworks around intellectual property, he added, noting that commercial value needs to be considered from the beginning, supported by clearer rights protection, transparent valuation, stronger licensing systems and better routes to investment, distribution and international markets.
He also said that Arabic-language intellectual property can be more difficult to value consistently than intellectual property in more established global content markets.
In music streaming, regional platforms can also return a smaller share of revenue to rights holders than major global platforms, he noted.
“Closing this gap means developing practical standards for valuing Arabic books, screen adaptations, games and franchises, while giving creators a fairer share of the value their work generates,” Bin Tamim said.
He also pointed out that building stronger Arabic AI will also depend on cooperation between universities, publishers and technology companies.
Bin Tamim said universities and research centres can provide linguistic expertise, long-term research and rigorous evaluation, while publishers bring trusted content, editorial standards and rights-management experience.