United Arab EmiratesAI regulation

Regulation Status

• The UAE has no comprehensive, binding AI-specific law; its approach remains multi-layered, combining national strategies, sectoral guidelines, voluntary charters and international cooperation.
• The UAE has built a dense institutional and strategy framework, including the UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031, an AI Office, the Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technology Council (2024) and, in June 2026, a Federal Authority for AI and Data consolidating national data, AI and digital government functions.
• Governance instruments are largely voluntary and sectoral: a Charter for the Development and Use of AI (2024), AI Ethics Principles and Guidelines (2022), financial-sector guidelines, and targeted policies such as rules requiring election candidates to disclose AI tools (2025) and a federal framework for an agentic AI project (2026).
• The UAE is highly active internationally, joining Japan's Hiroshima AI Process Friends Group, signing AI MoUs and investment deals with the US, France, Italy, South Korea and others, aligning with the US on AI chips, and engaging in BRICS+ and Arab League AI initiatives.