Now, Dubai residents can apply for DEWA electricity and water supply activation in just two minutes

Dubai: Customers in Dubai can now apply to activate their electricity and water supply in just two minutes, down from around eight minutes, as Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) uses agentic artificial intelligence (AI) to simplify and speed up its services.

The redesigned electricity and water activation of supply service requires just three customer inputs, compared with 10 previously, while the number of steps in the customer journey has been reduced from nine to three.

The result is a 75 per cent reduction in the time required to complete the journey, with the service available around the clock.

The improvement is part of a wider DEWA transformation that has seen 16 of its 21 services — 76 per cent of its total service portfolio — enhanced with agentic AI in less than 90 days, the authority revealed on Tuesday.

The remaining five services are expected to be completed within the next two months.

The electricity and water activation service processes approximately 210,000 transactions annually. With the agentic AI-enabled service, these transactions will become much faster.

By automating tasks and coordinating processes across systems, DEWA has reduced the amount of information customers need to provide and the number of steps they need to complete.

For customers, that means a shorter and simpler journey when activating essential electricity and water services.

DEWA has also introduced agentic AI into the handling of electricity and water technical notifications.

The AI-enabled system can receive, classify and verify requests and coordinate workflows through to resolution. The case-assignment process, which previously relied on 16 coordinators, can now execute autonomously around the clock.

This allows technical notifications to be processed and directed through the appropriate workflow continuously, rather than relying on manual assignment.

The AI transformation also extends to payment reconciliation, which supports 13 DEWA services and processes approximately 13.3 million transactions each year.

The new system can process and validate data, detect anomalies, manage exceptions and continuously monitor operations.

As a result, the daily payment reconciliation cycle has been reduced from around four hours to just 12 minutes, representing a 95 per cent reduction in processing time.

While the improvement is primarily an operational one, faster reconciliation strengthens the processes supporting DEWA's customer services and allows anomalies and exceptions to be identified and managed continuously.

DEWA said the move to agentic AI is changing the way its services are designed and delivered, shifting from AI systems that primarily provide information or support users towards models capable of autonomously executing tasks and operations end-to-end.

The authority began its AI journey in 2017 and subsequently launched an AI roadmap aimed at becoming the world's first AI-native utility.

According to DEWA, the latest transformation is focused on delivering tangible benefits for customers, employees and other stakeholders by redesigning services and operations, reducing procedures and required inputs, accelerating delivery and improving accuracy and efficiency.

For customers, the changes are already tangible: the electricity and water activation journey takes two minutes instead of eight, requires three inputs instead of 10 and involves three steps instead of nine.

DEWA said its agentic AI-powered services are also designed to provide seamless and proactive service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

With 16 of its 21 services already transformed and the remaining five due to be completed within two months, DEWA is expanding the use of AI from simply assisting customers and employees to autonomously handling more of the processes behind everyday electricity and water services.

The latest changes mark a shift from AI systems that primarily provide information or support users towards agentic AI models capable of autonomously executing defined tasks and operations end-to-end.

DEWA began its AI journey in 2017 and subsequently launched an AI roadmap aimed at becoming the world's first AI-native utility. The authority says its use of AI has progressively expanded across its services and operations, with a focus on improving efficiency, productivity and customer experience.

For customers, the practical impact of the latest transformation include fewer inputs, fewer steps, faster processing and services that can operate around the clock.

DEWA's latest rollout also comes as the UAE pushes government entities towards wider adoption of autonomous AI. In April 2026, the UAE announced a target to transform 50% of government sectors, services and operations within two years using Agentic AI models capable of autonomous execution and decision-making

“We are proud that DEWA is one of the first government organisation in the UAE to deploy these technologies at such an advanced level, driving the transition from AI models that support users and provide information to models capable of autonomously executing tasks and operations end-to-end,” said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA.

“We remain committed to delivering tangible and sustainable value for customers, employees and all stakeholders by redesigning services and operations, accelerating delivery, reducing procedures and required inputs, enhancing accuracy and efficiency, and providing seamless, proactive services around the clock,” he added.