DUBAI, 2nd November, 2026 (WAM) — Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is accelerating across the UAE’s financial sector, with more than 70% of firms in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) using AI, while Emirates NBD has allocated around 50% of its technology budget to AI initiatives.
Mark Steward, Chief Executive of the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), told the Emirates News Agency (WAM) on the sidelines of Dubai FinTech Summit 2026 that AI adoption had risen from 30% to 70%, with 64% of firms using generative AI.
He anticipated continued strong growth in the DIFC’s financial sector next year, highlighting a DFSA report on frontier and agentic AI and cyber resilience, alongside a specialised survey on financial asset tokenisation in investment funds.
Neeraj Makin, Group Head of Strategy, Analytics and Venture Capital at Emirates NBD, said the bank had allocated approximately 50% of its technology budget to AI over the past year and would maintain this approach next year.
The bank is developing more than 50 AI use cases, including fraud prevention and customer service. A trial involving 4,000 debt collection accounts, split equally between AI and employees, showed a 15% productivity improvement using AI.
Mohammed Al Hakim, Vice Chairman of MultiBank Group and CEO of MB.io, said the UAE had become a global hub for financial innovation.
He told WAM that the group, which relocated its operations from the United States to the UAE in 2021, had recorded trading volumes of approximately US$500 billion in a single month.
Al Hakim said AI integration had improved trading and interbank financial operations, while the group continued developing technology solutions from the UAE for international institutions and clients.
These developments underscore AI’s growing role in improving efficiency, strengthening cyber resilience and attracting sustainable global investment.
Source: Emirates News Agency