Emirates NBD runs 150 AI initiatives, 65 in production

The Dubai FinTech Summit 2026 served as a showcase for how far UAE lenders have moved beyond pilot projects. Emirates NBD's disclosure of more than 150 AI initiatives, with 65 already in production, and its commitment of roughly 50% of its technology budget to AI, signals that the bank is building AI into its operating model rather than testing it at the edges. Its June ranking first in the Evident AI Index for Banks – Middle East & Africa, which assessed more than 100 companies including insurers and payment processors, adds external validation to that internal push.

The bank's decision last month to become the first in the MENA region to deploy OpenAI's GPT models using local, in-country infrastructure shows how data residency and regulatory compliance are shaping deployment choices. That same infrastructure approach is being applied defensively: as advanced models make it easier to find software vulnerabilities, the number of critical security flaws the bank must evaluate has climbed from approximately 1,000 per month in early 2025 to around 15,000 last month. The regional backdrop has raised the stakes, with daily attempted cyberattacks in the UAE reportedly surging from around 200,000 to as many as 700,000 amid escalating geopolitical tensions since the outbreak of the US-Iran war on February 28.

Other UAE lenders are moving in parallel. Commercial Bank of Dubai unveiled partnerships with Microsoft, Silent Eight, and Comarch AI Wealth, and joined forces with Zamp and signed agreements with Harvey, Sirion, and Flank. Its chief technology and services officer, Thomas Cherian, said the bank is moving from traditional AI applications toward agentic AI, estimating that AI agents could handle 55% to 60% of operational tasks while humans retain approval authority. The government's target to shift 50% of federal operations to agentic AI by 2028, and Dubai's two-year private-sector action plan announced the following month, give those bank-level efforts a policy tailwind that may accelerate adoption across the sector.