Today's Edition
MOHAMMAD GHAZAL (ABU DHABI)
The UAE is ranked the first in the Arab world and 18th globally on the Government AI Readiness Index 2023 published by Oxford Insights.
The report, which measures government readiness to integrate AI in public services is based on three pillars; namely government, technology sector, and infrastructure.
The UAE has taken the lead in the Arab world, driven by relatively high scores across all three pillars, according to the index, which covered 193 countries.
The 2023 index relied on 39 sub-indicators and 10 dimensions, including innovation capability, size, adaptability, digital capacity, governance, vision, data availability, infrastructure, human capital, and data representation.
The UAE surpassed Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait, Algeria, Morocco and other Arab states covered by the report.
Compared to the 2022 index, the UAE has made progress moving from 22nd place to 18th globally.
Internationally, the UAE was ahead of Taiwan, Switzerland, Malaysia, Italy, Spain, Brazil, India, Turkey, and New Zealand and many others.
According to the index, the US is ranked the first globally and is followed by Singapore, UK, Finland and Canada respectively.
According to the index, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region displays a significant variation in government AI readiness, ranking as the region with the third-largest range of scores.
In 2023, the MENA region witnessed significant developments in terms of governance and AI ethics principles.
Recently, countries in the MENA region have taken important steps towards improving their Data & Infrastructure foundations, the index indicated.
The region has also undergone a notable surge in data centre investments, according to the index, which indicated that effective integration of AI into government operations depends on having a skilled workforce.
The index said a potential area for advancement in the MENA region is human capital.
