Today's Edition
BATOOL GHAITH (ABU DHABI)
Hamdan Al Ali, Ph.D. candidate in Natural Language Processing at MBZUAI and co-founder of PotionAI, is building games that are fun, educational and therapeutic, all while rooted in Emirati culture.
Globally successful games often carry the humour, values and imagination of the societies that create them. But Arab culture, and especially Emirati culture, remains largely untapped in global gaming.
“Emirati culture remains a largely untapped source of inspiration within global games, offering space for more authentic and nuanced storytelling. As an Emirati, I grew up surrounded by stories, traditions, and everyday experiences that are rich with meaning. I know this culture deeply, and I love it,” Al Ali told Aletihad.
PotionAI builds games that are fun, educational and therapeutic, helping to solve complex problems by turning them into engaging, gamified experiences, he explained.
Developing games that reflect Emirati culture, Ali Ali added, is both a creative choice and a responsibility.
"It is about ensuring our narratives are told authentically, and about sharing a part of who we are with the world in a format that is immersive, engaging, and future-facing. Most importantly, I truly enjoy bringing these experiences to life and seeing others connect with them," he said.
That vision comes to life through a growing portfolio of culturally rooted games, such as "Emirati Tales" and "Alsharah".
"Emirati Tales" is a family-friendly 3D platformer where players explore the rich folklore of the UAE while learning essential life lessons.
"Alsharah", an educational, narrative-driven game, reflects the UAE's falconry culture, letting players experience the life of a falconer first hand, Al Ali said.
The deeper mission? To preserve identity.
Culturally relevant artificial intelligence, Al Ali explains, plays a critical role in identity and language preservation, as Emirati Arabic remains under-represented in training data, often defaulting to Modern Standard Arabic or other dialects in speech recognition systems.
"While adults may see this as a technical inconvenience, younger generations may gradually adapt their speech to fit technology. When systems fail to recognise dialect, behaviour shifts, and behaviour shapes identity," he said.
As part of his Ph.D specialisation, Al Ali directly encounters this gap in datasets, contextual modelling, and linguistic resources. "When AI interacts naturally in Emirati Arabic, it reinforces confidence, cultural pride and linguistic continuity," he added.
Beyond culture, PotionAI addresses a broader challenge in education and healthcare. Education's core structure has remained largely unchanged, while entertainment and AI advance rapidly.
"Younger generations spend significant time in digital environments, yet most screen time is purely entertainment-driven," Al Ali said, noting that entertainment does not have to lose its fun to gain purpose.
"With intentional design, games can integrate learning, cognitive development, and wellbeing seamlessly, without players feeling taught or assessed," he added.
Additionally, in healthcare, AI-powered gamification can analyse behavioural patterns, detect early indicators, and support scalable screening, easing pressure on clinicians. AI personalises, adapts, and extracts meaningful insights from gameplay, according to Al Ali.
While doing his Ph.D, Al Ali realised that proving educational or wellbeing outcomes requires controlled experiments, pre- and post-assessments, statistical validation, reproducibility, and methodologies capable of withstanding scientific scrutiny.
UAE-based startups, he said, are already shaping global AI innovation. With institutional support, talent access, and global ambition, startups here design solutions not just for local gaps but for international impact.
