From Cairo to Abu Dhabi, AI Reshapes Government Services Across the Region

Artificial intelligence is moving deeper into government services across the Middle East and Africa, with the UAE using its mature digital infrastructure to expand AI-enabled public services while Egypt builds locally developed tools for Arabic-language and government applications.

The UAE ranked first globally in citizen satisfaction with digital government services, with 89% of respondents rating them highly, according to Boston Consulting Group’s 2026 Digital Government Citizen Survey. The study covered 48,500 respondents across 44 countries.

The findings were highlighted as AI Everything Abu Dhabi 2026 opened at ADNEC Centre on October 6, bringing together more than 400 exhibitors, over 180 speakers and more than 200 investors managing about $100 billion in assets.

UAE leads global digital government satisfaction

The UAE also ranked first globally in the reported use of digital government services, at 53%.

More than three-quarters of UAE respondents, or 76%, said their latest digital government transaction provided a better experience than a typical private-sector interaction.

The figures reflect years of investment in digital public services and give the country a strong base for the next phase of AI-enabled government.

BCG’s broader global survey found that 64% of respondents now use AI at least once a week, up 26 percentage points in two years.

The Gulf is also emerging as one of the regions most receptive to greater use of AI in government. Nearly 80% of citizens across the region are open to AI-powered government interactions, compared with 66% globally.

In the UAE specifically, 53% of respondents said they believe the benefits of AI outweigh the risks, while 82% reported using AI every week.

Citizens still want human involvement

Despite growing acceptance of AI, the findings suggest citizens are not asking governments to remove people entirely from public-service delivery.

BCG found that many respondents favour a hybrid model in which AI handles straightforward and repetitive interactions while humans remain involved in more complex or consequential decisions.

That distinction is becoming increasingly important as governments move beyond conventional digital portals and begin introducing generative and agentic AI into public services.

The challenge is no longer simply putting government transactions online. It is about using AI to make services faster, more personalised and more responsive while maintaining transparency, accountability and safeguards.

Egypt develops locally focused AI systems

Egypt is approaching the transition from a different starting point.

The country was among those covered in BCG’s global survey, alongside other African markets including Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa. The published survey findings do not provide a separate digital-government satisfaction ranking for Egypt.

However, Egypt has been expanding its national AI capabilities under its broader digital transformation strategy.

At AI Everything Middle East & Africa in Cairo in February, the government presented several national AI initiatives focused on public services and locally relevant applications.

One of the most significant was Karnak, a nationally developed large language model designed to support Arabic-first applications across sectors including government services, education and healthcare.

The Cairo event brought together more than 350 AI companies and startups, over 100 investors and participants from dozens of countries, highlighting Egypt’s push to position AI as part of its state modernisation and economic strategy.

AI moves into government service operations

Egypt has also been developing more specialised AI tools for government-service delivery.

Among the applications presented were systems using natural language processing and AI-assisted customer support to improve the performance of digital public-service channels.

These initiatives sit within Egypt’s broader effort to integrate AI into government services, healthcare, education, automated translation and speech-to-text systems. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has described AI as an increasingly important component of its digital strategy.

The focus differs from the UAE’s model, where the starting point is already a highly used and highly rated digital-government ecosystem.

Egypt, by contrast, is working to strengthen the underlying AI capabilities and locally adapted technologies that can be integrated into platforms such as Digital Egypt.

From digital government to intelligent government

The developments in Cairo and Abu Dhabi illustrate different stages of the same regional shift.

The UAE is using an established digital-government system as a foundation for more automated and AI-powered services, while Egypt is investing in sovereign AI capabilities and locally developed models that can support its next phase of digital transformation.

Across both markets, the direction is increasingly clear.

Governments are moving from digitising existing services towards redesigning them around artificial intelligence.

That transition also raises new questions about trust, oversight and the role of human decision-making.

As AI becomes embedded in public services, success will increasingly depend not only on whether a government can deploy the technology, but whether it can use it to improve speed, accessibility and personalisation without weakening accountability.

For governments across the Middle East and Africa, the next benchmark is therefore likely to be less about how many services are available online and more about how intelligently those services can respond to citizens.