Annual Government Challenge: AED9 million for top agentic AI solutions
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has launched the Annual Government Challenge, a new national platform that lets employees of federal ministries and entities help design innovative solutions for national priorities, coinciding with the start of UAE Innovation Month.
The first edition focuses on developing agentic AI solutions and applying them to redesign services and operations, improve decision-making and raise government performance. It is overseen by the Mohammed bin Rashid Centre for Government Innovation at the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs. "We want unconventional ideas. Solutions that make a difference," His Highness said, announcing that the top nine government projects and teams will be honoured.
The challenge has three main categories: Government Services, which redesigns the customer journey and cuts procedures; Internal Operations, which improves ways of working, coordination and reduces repetitive work; and Unconventional Ideas, which reimagines the role of government and how it works. The edition will end with nine winning projects sharing total prizes of AED9 million, and teams can register through the dedicated platform at challenge.gov.ae.
Mohammad bin Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and Chairman of the National Committee for the Agentic AI Project, said the government aims to deploy agentic AI assistants to work alongside employees, as part of a target to move 50% of government sectors, services and operations to agentic AI models within two years. "The best government ideas come from those who live the challenges every day," he said.
Al Majlis Analysis: What is new about this challenge is that it moves government innovation from top-down initiatives to ideas from the employees who handle procedures every day, and ties it to a clear numerical target of moving half of operations to agentic AI within two years. The choice of technology is deliberate: unlike conventional AI tools, agentic systems carry out tasks rather than just answering questions, which means redesigning a service rather than merely speeding it up. If the nine winning projects make it into real use, the true measure will be what customers notice in simpler, faster services.