AI will be more important than electricity: Microsoft, G42 leaders at Dubai’s World Government Summit

Artificial intelligence has moved decisively beyond pilots and proofs of concept, with governments now deploying it at scale as a core public service tool, senior leaders from Microsoft and Abu Dhabi-based AI firm G42 said at the World Government Summit 2026 in Dubai.

Speaking on the theme “Empowering Governments, Enriching Societies: Can AI lead?”, Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President of Microsoft’s Cloud + AI Group, and Peng Xiao, Group CEO of G42, highlighted how sovereign controls, secure infrastructure and responsible deployment are becoming central as AI shifts from experimentation to daily use in government operations.

Guthrie said the past year marked a clear turning point.
“This is no longer a nice-to-have or a demo, but rather something that people are going to leverage and use every day from a government perspective,” he said.
As AI enters production environments, he stressed the importance of sovereign AI models, particularly for the public sector, where data security, national control and in-country deployment are critical.

“When people start to use this to run their governments, you really need to understand the operational requirements – security, reliability,” Guthrie said, pointing to the UAE as a leading example. “The use cases that are now in production are phenomenal.”

Peng Xiao echoed that sentiment, noting that while many governments are still debating AI at a conceptual level, the UAE has been operationalising it for years. He highlighted G42’s deep partnership with Microsoft, describing it as foundational to the country’s AI ambitions.

“In the UAE, we are actively constructing a five-gigawatt AI campus,” Xiao said. “We are connecting the national power grid to this new intelligence grid because we believe AI will become a more important utility than even electricity.”

He cited TAMM, Abu Dhabi’s all-in-one government services app, as a live example of AI at a societal scale. “Whatever you need as a citizen, consider it done,” Xiao said, noting that the AI-powered platform was developed jointly with Microsoft.

Looking ahead, Xiao said the five-gigawatt AI capacity under development in the UAE could generate up to 100 trillion tokens per day, enabling intelligence services not just for the country but for the wider region and beyond. Thanks to the UAE’s undersea fibre connectivity, he noted, AI services can reach nearly four billion people globally with sub-100 millisecond latency.

Guthrie said another major shift expected over the next year is the rise of autonomous, or ‘agentic’ AI. Unlike traditional chat-based systems, autonomous agents can be assigned tasks and carry them out independently, sometimes without step-by-step human oversight.

“That’s incredibly powerful,” he said, “but it also means you need the right governance, security and safety controls.” Microsoft, he added, is developing frameworks such as Agent 365 to ensure visibility, control and rapid intervention if systems behave unpredictably.

Xiao said G42 is mirroring that approach at a national level, alongside what he described as a “token factory,” by building an “agent factory” in collaboration with Microsoft. “As we empower our agents to do more for us – even while we sleep – ensuring responsible authentication, authorisation and interaction become a national priority,” he said.

Xiao revealed that agentic AI is already being deployed in Abu Dhabi’s healthcare sector, with AI agents supporting primary care doctors to improve quality while reducing costs.

Both leaders rejected the idea of a winner-takes-all future for AI.

Guthrie compared the moment to the early days of smartphones, arguing that the biggest gains will go to organisations and governments that move early and responsibly. “There’s incredible work happening here in the UAE,” he said. “AI is now integrated into how governments deliver real impact to people – and that’s where its true value lies.”