Gulf states push for sovereign AI as cyber risks grow

Dubai: As artificial intelligence becomes deeply embedded in government systems, critical infrastructure, and public services, Gulf countries are increasingly shifting their focus from simply adopting AI tools to building sovereign AI capabilities that ensure long-term control, resilience, and digital independence.

For countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, AI is no longer viewed solely as a productivity or innovation tool. Instead, policymakers are beginning to treat it as strategic national infrastructure alongside sectors such as energy, telecommunications, and transport.

The growing emphasis on sovereign AI comes at a time when cyber threats are becoming more complex, automated, and capable of disrupting essential state functions, according to Shalev Hulio, co-founder of Dream.

“Cyber attacks are no longer isolated technical incidents. They can affect the systems countries rely on every day: energy infrastructure, ports, aviation, financial systems, telecom networks, government services, and public trust,” Hulio said.

His comments reflect broader concerns among governments worldwide as AI technologies become integrated into sectors that support daily life and economic stability. In highly digitised societies such as the UAE, the stakes are particularly high.

The UAE has rapidly positioned itself among the world’s leading digital economies, with government services, transport systems, financial infrastructure, and public-sector operations increasingly dependent on advanced digital platforms. As this digital integration accelerates, cyber resilience is becoming central to national planning.

Hulio warned that AI is fundamentally changing the scale and speed of cyber threats. Attackers are becoming “faster, more automated, and more scalable,” reducing the effectiveness of traditional cybersecurity approaches that rely heavily on manual monitoring and isolated defensive systems.

“Cyber resilience can no longer be treated as a secondary IT problem. It has become part of national planning,” he noted.

This evolving threat landscape is driving governments to rethink what AI leadership actually means. While many countries are adopting AI-powered systems, relatively few are building the infrastructure, governance structures, and operational capabilities needed to securely control those systems at a national level.

Hulio added: “There is a huge difference between using AI and controlling AI. Many countries are adopting AI tools. Very few are building sovereign AI capability.”

According to Hulio, sovereign AI capability goes beyond access to advanced technology. It involves maintaining national control over data, infrastructure, and critical operational systems while deploying AI securely within sensitive government environments.

That challenge is becoming increasingly important as AI systems begin supporting essential services including transportation networks, emergency response systems, financial infrastructure, utilities, and public administration.

“The real challenge is not building impressive demos,” Hulio said. “It is deploying AI inside the actual operating systems of a country securely and reliably.”

He argued that the UAE has emerged as one of the few countries actively operationalising its AI ambitions rather than limiting them to strategy documents and policy announcements.

“The UAE understands this distinction well. Many countries announce AI strategies. The UAE operationalises them,” he added.

The country has spent years building a wider digital ecosystem that supports AI deployment, including investment in infrastructure, cybersecurity frameworks, regulatory systems, talent development, and education initiatives.

“What is impressive about the UAE is the combination of ambition and pragmatism,” Hulio added. “It is building the foundations of an AI-enabled state: infrastructure, regulation, cyber resilience, education, talent, and deployment.”

The Gulf region’s approach reflects a broader shift in how governments are viewing AI globally. In many markets, AI discussions remain centred around commercial productivity gains and private-sector innovation. In the Gulf, however, AI is increasingly tied to economic diversification strategies, long-term competitiveness, and national resilience.

Sensitive data may be distributed across ministries, agencies, and disconnected systems, making integration and security significantly more complicated than in private-sector deployments.

“You cannot simply plug a public AI model into a sensitive government environment. At Dream, we built the architecture specifically for these environments from day one,” Hulio explained.

He added said the company was established in response to what he sees as a widening gap between national-scale cyber challenges and the fragmented enterprise tools traditionally used to manage them.

“We saw governments trying to solve national-scale problems using disconnected enterprise tools while the threat environment was becoming faster, more automated, and increasingly AI-driven,” he said.

According to Hulio, fragmentation remains one of the biggest obstacles governments face when building digital resilience. Countries often manage fragmented cyber systems, isolated data environments, and disconnected decision-making processes that limit their ability to respond effectively to rapidly evolving threats.

“That is why we built Dream, not as another AI application or cybersecurity product, but as secure AI and cyber infrastructure for governments and critical systems,” he said.

The growing focus on sovereign AI also reflects wider geopolitical and economic concerns surrounding technological dependence. Countries that rely entirely on external AI systems for critical operations may face increasing operational and strategic risks in the years ahead.

For Gulf states investing heavily in digital transformation, the next phase of development may depend not only on how quickly AI is adopted, but on how effectively it is controlled, governed, and integrated into national infrastructure.

Hulio believes the future competitiveness of digital economies will increasingly depend on their ability to develop strength across multiple advanced technologies simultaneously.

“The next generation of leading digital economies will need to develop strength across three strategic pillars – Cyber, AI, and quantum computing,” he concluded.