Dubai is shifting its global technology competition from mobile applications to autonomous AI agents, aiming to strengthen its position as a hub for digital innovation. The revamped Create AI Agents Championship will focus on systems that can complete tasks and make decisions with limited human involvement.
Dubai Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced the change when this year's winners received their awards on October 7. The initiative reflects the emirate's ambition to lead the next phase of artificial intelligence development.
It started as a local event in 2023, but has so far seen applications from 15,564 teams from 153 different countries. The current edition saw 9,754 applications, which surpassed the number from the first two iterations of the competition.
Through the initiative, over 1,700 prototypes as well as more than 140 working applications have been created. As per Saeed Al Gergawi, vice president at the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, more than 250 mentors from all across the globe have mentored those involved.
With the new format, the participants will have to identify real-life challenges, create agents to overcome them, and showcase their impact. Additionally, they will also have to prove how their innovations can be turned into business ventures.
Al Gergawi said that the idea behind this new format was to create avenues for innovators globally. "Ultimately, what we want to do is we want to be able to use agentic AI as tools to serve humanity and to serve global economies," he said.
In contrast to the typical chatbots that mostly answer queries, agentic AI systems can realize goals through performing various tasks, like verifying information, making bookings, and doing paperwork. Innovators are asked to create and test their innovations in Dubai before launching them in their own home markets. The goal is to reduce the time spent on innovations, which usually takes years, down to six months.
There are four categories in the contest in which societal, personal, business, and youth-oriented agents can win. Each of the category winners gets about AED 550,000, while the winner of the entire AI Agent of the Year gets about AED 1 million. Moreover, there are no age restrictions for participants, so young innovators can compete with startups and other companies. It will be the next step for Dubai to make these innovations useful for business and society.
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