Abu Dhabi best city for artificial intelligence in the Middle East and North Africa

Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi has been ranked the leading city for artificial intelligence in the Middle East and North Africa and 11th worldwide in a new global index measuring cities’ ability to develop, finance and adopt the technology.

Dubai placed 14th globally in The Observer’s inaugural AI Cities Index, putting both UAE cities ahead of several established technology centres, including Toronto, Tel Aviv and Boston.

The ranking assessed 57 cities in 36 countries using 50 indicators covering investment, innovation and the implementation of artificial intelligence. The Observer defines a city’s AI capacity as its demonstrated ability to originate, build, finance and absorb the technology.

Abu Dhabi recorded its strongest performance in the operating environment category, ranking fifth globally with a score of 77.9. The measure examines factors including governance and institutions, dedicated AI bodies and strategies, national policymaking, research centres and the presence of highly ranked computer science universities.

The UAE capital also ranked sixth globally for public investment, with a score of 36.2, and seventh for private investment, with 18.4, placing it among the world’s top seven cities in three of the index’s seven categories.

Abu Dhabi came 11th globally in development, a category covering patent activity, model performance and open-source datasets and models. It ranked 27th in research, 30th for its commercial ecosystem and 33rd for infrastructure.

The Observer grouped Abu Dhabi alongside Paris and Seoul as examples of what it described as “state-built” AI centres, where government-led investment is directed towards research, infrastructure, public adoption and private-sector growth.

The publication said Gulf cities were outperforming some long-established computing research centres, helped by sovereign investment and strong government involvement.

Dubai, meanwhile, recorded its strongest showing in public investment, ranking fourth globally with a score of 63.7. It also entered the global top 10 for operating environment, placing 10th with 66.6 points.

Dubai ranked 27th for infrastructure and 33rd in both development and commercial ecosystem. It placed 42nd for private investment and 57th for research. Despite those results, its overall ranking of 14th placed it ahead of several historically prominent technology hubs.

San Francisco topped the overall index, followed by New York, Seoul and Beijing. Paris ranked fifth and London sixth, while Shenzhen, Shanghai, Tokyo and Singapore completed the top 10. Abu Dhabi followed in 11th place.

The index was compiled over eight months and is intended to establish a baseline for tracking how cities’ AI capabilities change over time. The Observer said the ranking would be repeated and refined annually.

The project was produced by The Observer in partnership with Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence and Khalifa University.