Today's Edition
MAYS IBRAHIM (ABU DHABI)
The UAE is emerging as a global proving ground for agentic AI in payments, with a mix of digital maturity, regulatory foresight and diverse market conditions that companies like Adyen say make the country uniquely positioned to develop the next era of autonomous financial services.
“The UAE has essentially created the perfect conditions for AI innovation in payments,” Mahmoud Ismail, Chief of Staff & Head of Acquiring, Payments and Operations, MEA at Adyen, told Aletihad in a recent interview.
With nationwide 5G coverage, multiple cloud availability zones and high-reliability data facilities, the UAE offers the low-latency environment required for real-time AI decision-making, he noted.
“When an AI agent needs to process thousands of transactions per second and make split-second fraud decisions, infrastructure quality directly impacts performance.”
Ismail also pointed to the UAE’s demographic and behavioural landscape as a differentiator.
With residents spanning more than 200 nationalities, AI systems trained in the UAE naturally learn from diverse languages, consumption habits and cultural expectations. This diversity, he explained, produces AI models that are inherently more robust and global in applicability.
“The population is also incredibly tech-savvy and open to trying new technologies,” he added, noting that the government’s early and visible adoption of AI helps drive public acceptance in everyday services.
Those dynamics, combined with a business environment hungry for innovation, make the UAE one of Adyen’s most attractive markets for piloting and scaling AI-driven financial solutions, according to Ismail.
Boosted by one of the world’s highest income levels, a booming tourism sector and an e-commerce market projected to exceed Dh50.6 billion by 2029, the high digital transaction volume yields large and varied datasets required to train sophisticated financial AI, Ismail noted.
The ecosystem is strengthened further by a collaborative pool of partners willing to build for the future rather than protect legacy systems, he added.
The regulatory environment is another strength. Ismail described the UAE’s approach as progressive and modern, citing the UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, dedicated AI ministries and a comprehensive central bank fintech framework.
He pointed to Sandbox programmes within the Central Bank, Abu Dhabi Global Market and Dubai International Financial Centre, which allow startups and global players to test new solutions with appropriate safeguards. This “test and learn” environment, he added, enables regulations to evolve with technology rather than react after the fact.
With these foundations in place, Ismail predicts that agentic AI will move into mainstream use faster than many expect in the UAE – even as fast as the next two to three years for routine consumer payment management.
Research from Salesforce backs his predictions, with indicators showing that 80% of UAE organisations are planning to use AI agents by 2027, up from just 32% today.
The next wave, Ismail said, will see AI systems not only categorising spending or flagging anomalies but autonomously cancelling unused subscriptions, timing foreign currency transfers or routing payments to maximise rewards.
Despite increasing autonomy, he does not foresee AI replacing financial advisors entirely. Instead, Ismail expects a hybrid model, where AI handles data analysis, routine tasks and 24/7 support, while humans focus on complex financial planning and personal relationships – still highly valued in the region.
“It’s not man versus machine,” he said, “it’s man with machine.”
As financial AI advances, data privacy and customer trust become critical, Ismail highlighted emerging models such as federated learning and differential privacy, which allow AI systems to improve without centralising sensitive personal data.
And, Ismail described the UAE’s approach as one of regulatory balance – ensuring high-levels of protection without stifling innovation. The UAE Central Bank has already shown leadership by issuing guidance on AI use in the financial sector, and the next step will likely be deeper frameworks as the technology evolves, he added.
“The UAE is in a remarkably strong position and I’d argue it’s one of the best-prepared markets globally for agentic AI adoption,” he said.
