While artificial intelligence (AI), has become a recent buzzword, the UAE’s commitment to digital innovation has positioned itself as a global leader in AI and technology. There are several initiatives that have put technology and AI at the forefront, this decision by the government has helped play this as a pivotal role for business and entrepreneurship in catalysing the UAE’s digital landscape.
Highlighting this shift and change, and how it can truly make UAE a global technology hub, is Professor Julian Birkinshaw, Vice-Dean London Business School. An author of over seven books and research paper, his recent paper ‘Digital Dubai’ explores the impact of the UAE government’s shift to a paperless system in 2021 on business efficiency and citizen services.
Birkinshaw, a Fellow of the British Academy, Strategic Management Society and the (American) Academy of Management. He has honorary doctorates from Copenhagen Business School and Stockholm School of Economics.
He is an internationally-renowned academic who has made contributions research on digital transformation and agility of large multinational firms.
In a conversation with edge/ Birkinshaw talks about digital transformation in UAE and the next steps forward.
Tell us about what it would take to make Dubai the digital capital of the world. How would that impact and build stronger digitisation for businesses in the region?
There are many aspects to being a digital capital. If you think of the components of a digital ecosystem, you need big established companies with major activities in the region (Microsoft, Google, Apple etc), you need start-up companies, venture capital investors, patient financial capital, and so on. These are all things the Dubai authorities are working on.
But underpinning all the above, you need three things: A stable and easy-to-use regulatory system (for example what is offered by the DIFC), a well-educated workforce, and a supportive digital infrastructure that helps companies to build their operations quickly and to integrate with the public sector. The “Digital Dubai” case study I have written is about the last part – it is about how Dubai has created a paperless and leading-edge digital infrastructure that is good for companies and good for citizens.
How would a better digitised emirate help local businesses and startups, how can Dubai become a tech hub for startups?
Better digital infrastructure helps start-up companies get on their feet quickly. For example, if you are a “fintech” company creating a new service for consumers to manage their personal finances, you need a properly digitised banking system that you can quickly plug into. Or imagine you want to create a second-hand car trading business or a taxi service, you want seamless access to information about car licensing and ownership, insurance, parking, and so on – much of which is provided through government departments. The key point is that Dubai is competing against other Gulf cities and indeed other cities around the world to be the “hub” for new companies, and entrepreneurs look very carefully at these types of things when choosing where to base themselves.
What are the technological efforts the region would need to make to ensure it becomes easier for businesses to see Dubai as a tech hub?
The case study I have written on Digital Dubai shows that the Digital Dubai Authority has already made enormous strides, and in some respects, it has become the most digital and paperless city in the world, already. Twenty years ago, was the original e-government initiative mandated by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed, then there was the mobile initiative in the early 2010s leading to the Dubai Now app and the UAE pass. There was also a big push to making everything paperless, by pushing government departments to digitise all transactions. Now there is a lot of work being done on using Generative AI. So, my point is that the Digital Dubai Authority is doing exactly what it needs to, to enable Dubai to become a tech hub.
In the context of ‘vision vs. reality’, how do you think the UAE’s initiatives compare to the global digital market, including key findings from UK, India, China, South Korea, and USA?
I have examined the digital initiatives of many other countries, and the UAE is clearly in the top group of countries worldwide, alongside successful European countries like Denmark and Estonia, and also South Korea. One UN survey put Dubai as one the top 5 cities in the world for its e-government services.
This definitely helps that UAE is relatively small, because the challenge of digitising countries like USA and China is just an order of magnitude more complicated. But nonetheless, I am impressed with how quickly the various e-government initiatives were rolled out.
In the UK, where I live and where I wrote a detailed case study about their government digital service, the effort required to make progress was much greater. There seems to be a much greater level of collaboration between government departments and goodwill towards delivering on Dubai’s vision, than I see in many other countries.
It’s also interesting to see how governments around the world are collaborating. For example, the UAE has agreed to create a seamless interface with India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), making it much easier for Indians visiting the UAE to make and receive money. This is the next step forward.
What is the importance of ensuring data protection, safety, and ethical use of AI? When building a broad vision towards a digital future, what steps can be taken?
Governments have an obligation to create the “guardrails” around the use of digital technology to ensure that technology companies don’t over-ride individual privacy, and to make sure AI isn’t used for illegal or immoral activities. However, it’s quite easy for governments to be too strict, and arguably some of the restrictions governments have imposed, e.g. GDPR in Europe, have stifled innovation.
So, my view is that governments should create the regulatory “sandboxes” that allow companies to experiment with these new technologies, and to be vigilant in monitoring possible abuse of those technologies.
For example, I understand that Dubai has taken a less restrictive view than European countries around the application of blockchain-based technologies to commercial and financial activities, which is healthy.
