Abu dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Government has announced a significant partnership with Microsoft to deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot across the public sector, aiming to become the world's first AI-native government by 2027. This rollout, part of the Frontier Employee Programme, equips 26,000 additional civil servants across 27 government entities with generative AI tools, building on 9,000 existing licenses to reach a total of 35,000.
According to Emirates News Agency, the initiative standardizes Microsoft 365 Copilot as the AI productivity platform for Abu Dhabi Government, embedding generative AI capabilities into daily operations and public service delivery. This integration promises faster, AI-assisted decision-making, translating into more responsive services for Abu Dhabi's citizens, residents, and businesses.
All licenses are provisioned with Advanced Data Residency (ADR), ensuring AI processing within UAE borders, a model attracting interest from governments abroad. The rollout includes AI training and certification programs, ensuring employees use these tools responsibly, securely, and effectively.
Wesam Lootah, Director-General of GovDigital at the Department of Government Enablement (DGE), stated, "Abu Dhabi is building a government that is AI-native by design, where technology elevates how government entities operate, collaborate, and serve the community." He emphasized the importance of equipping the workforce with advanced AI capabilities while ensuring secure, governed, and sustainable adoption.
Amr Kamel, General Manager, Microsoft UAE, highlighted the UAE's national direction toward Agentic AI as a distinctive approach to government transformation. He noted that the Frontier Employee Programme empowers 35,000 government employees across Abu Dhabi, scaling agentic AI to drive faster outcomes and more efficient processes across government.
The program is supported by an AI Adoption and Enablement framework, covering structured rollout, change management, and user enablement to drive safe, governed, and high-impact adoption across entities. It is underpinned by rigorous security, data governance, and readiness assessments to ensure compliance with government standards.
The Copilot rollout builds on a longstanding collaboration between DGE and Microsoft, spanning government cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, AI-driven services, and modern workplace technologies. In March 2025, DGE signed an agreement with Microsoft and Core42 to implement a sovereign cloud environment capable of processing over 11 million daily digital interactions, supporting the government's AI-native ambitions.
Furthermore, TAMM, Abu Dhabi's AI-powered government services app, leverages Microsoft technologies to deliver over 1,150 public and private services on a single platform. A strategic cybersecurity partnership also exists between Microsoft and DGE, safeguarding Abu Dhabi's digital government through global threat intelligence and resilience capabilities.
An AI Factory capability is being established across government, aiming to develop and scale AI use cases, solutions, and agents, with a target of hundreds of use cases and over 1,000 agents across the public sector. This initiative will accelerate Abu Dhabi's target of becoming an AI-native government.