A little over a year ago I visited the UAE for the first time. I arrived knowing very little about Dubai beyond the skyscrapers and luxury resorts; I left fully bought into the country’s AI-first rhetoric and inspired by the possibilities the region had to offer.

That first trip was centred around GITEX GLOBAL, one of the biggest tech exhibitions in the world. We were there to help launch The Intelligence Grid, G42’s vision for a future where AI was embedded in our lives as a day-to-day utility.

Twelve months on – and just back from my second GITEX – that vision feels closer than ever. Walking the exhibition halls in Dubai last week what struck me was not so much how difficult it was to find *anyone* not pushing some flavour of AI technology, but how generally mature, practical and, well, real that technology felt. Whereas last year the emphasis felt like it was on inspiration, in 2025 the conversation has moved on to practicalities.

The real thing

So while last year you could have had countless stilted conversations with life-size holographic avatars or entertained yourselves generating images of space cats (I did both), this year it was all about orchestrating data for enterprise AI solutions and ethical conversations about AI deployment in the Global South. Even the flying taxis felt like previews of what’s just round the corner rather than outlandish sci-fi concepts.

Our own involvement was a case in point. Our new iteration of The Intelligence Grid, which a number of G42 companies featured on their stands, is a rich, web-based storytelling experience that emphasises the real-world difference that G42’s AI technology is already making. And the responses to our latest innovation for G42, an interactive experience that captures and explores personal perspectives on what an AI-native society might look like, proved that most GITEX visitors think we’re pretty close to that vision already.

(Even the final GITEX experience we worked on – a fun and extremely popular game developed for Astra Tech to mark the launch of money transfer capabilities within its ubiquitous botim VOIP app – had a layer of AI messaging. There’s also no way we could have developed it without AI-accelerated coding.)

The infrastructure of intelligence

Perhaps the most noticeable consequence (or symptom) of this maturing of the AI conversation was the focus on the infrastructure of AI. Businesses love using GITEX to announce a deal with a public signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and last week both the number and the nature of the deals was pretty striking.

More than 100 MOUs and strategic partnerships were announced, many of them focused on AI infrastructure and smart city projects in and around the region. Abu Dhabi’s Department of Municipalities and Transport unveiled 19 partnerships in a single day. It feels like we’re watching G42’s Intelligence Grid and AI-first Society concepts moving from thought leadership to reality in real time.

When it comes to AI infrastructure, of course, few initiatives can touch Stargate UAE in terms of sheer scale and ambition. In a flagship G42 presentation last week, we got to hear directly from the Khazna CEO and some of the key partners about how much progress has already been made in a project that will ultimately deliver a 5-gigawatt Monaco-sized AI campus in Abu Dhabi, complete with an entire industrial, R&D and innovation ecosystem. Only announced in May, construction is well under way, with more than 3,500 people already working on-site. The first-phase 200MW data centre will open as early as next year.

Unstoppable

Even if it weren’t for the GITEX buzz, it’s clear that the UAE’s AI journey is gaining momentum. Barely a day goes by without an announcement about education, infrastructure or governance. But after last week’s conversations and announcements, it feels like things are actually stepping up a gear.

Is the UAE unique in its commitment and focus on AI as a fundamental economic driver? Perhaps not. But it’s pretty special. And it’s great to be playing a small part.