Dubai opens AI Sandbox to move artificial intelligence from pilot to market

Dubai has opened a regulatory sandbox for artificial intelligence, giving startups, small and medium-sized businesses and global technology companies a place to run market-ready AI products in real settings under supervision. The AI Sandbox was launched by the Dubai Future Foundation through Sandbox Dubai, the regulatory innovation arm of the wider Dubai RDI Ecosystem.

The premise is narrow and practical. Plenty of AI systems work in a demo. Fewer survive contact with real operating conditions, existing rules and data holders. The sandbox is built to close that distance by putting companies in the same room as regulators and the government entities that would eventually oversee their products, and by generating evidence those entities can use when they revise policy.

What can be tested

Sectors named include education, healthcare, transport and mobility, logistics, tourism and hospitality, media, and government services. Companies in real estate, retail, industry and public safety can also apply. Developers of enabling technologies — foundation models and hyperscaler solutions — are eligible where they face significant regulatory, policy or data-access obstacles.

Who gets in

Applications are judged on maturity. Concepts are not the target; solutions must have reached at least a minimum viable product stage, show commercial readiness, and be capable of producing the results and data that would support policy and regulatory work. Criteria prioritise genuine AI innovation at an advanced deployment level, particularly where regulatory or policy uncertainty is holding back rollout.

What participants get

Selected companies test in relevant real-world environments, engage directly with regulators and government entities, and draw on technical, regulatory and commercial expertise. Where data access is a material barrier, Sandbox Dubai may help facilitate engagement with data owners. Access needs the owner's approval and is not guaranteed.

Participation can involve examining temporary regulatory exemptions, depending on the case and the rules that apply. Those exemptions require approval from the relevant authority. They are not handed out automatically.

Regulators get something too: a structured way to watch new applications operate, spot risks early and collect evidence for policy updates. Sandbox Dubai describes its model as adaptive regulatory supervision — letting companies test products, services and business models in controlled real-world conditions while policymakers see how existing rules interact with new technology. Its platform states two objectives: shortening the path to compliant deployment and giving regulators evidence for more data-driven decisions.

Al Qama

Khalifa Al Qama, Chief of Research, Development and Innovation at the Dubai Future Foundation, said Dubai and the UAE have made significant progress adopting AI, and that attention is now shifting to helping promising solutions get past testing and into practical use. Regulatory barriers have to be addressed alongside continued technology development, he said, so companies can turn innovation into usable applications.

Al Qama said the AI Sandbox will strengthen collaboration between innovators and regulators, with both sides able to test applications, identify where frameworks need updating and work out practical responses to deployment problems. Innovators, in his description, work directly with authorities on rules that may be unclear, restrictive or unsuited to emerging uses of AI.

Why now

The launch lands in the middle of a global problem. Companies have invested heavily in AI and struggled to push it past pilots. World Economic Forum research found 74 percent of companies report challenges adopting AI at scale, and only 16 percent are considered ready for AI-enabled reinvention. Regulation is one constraint among several; organisations also hit trouble with data, infrastructure, integration, governance, skills and the redesign of operating processes.

A sandbox addresses a slice of that. It cannot fix a skills shortage or a broken data pipeline. It can, however, give a company a defined route through rules that were not written with its product in mind, and give the regulator a reason to rewrite them.

Part of a larger push

Sandbox Dubai sits inside the Dubai RDI Ecosystem, which the Dubai Future Foundation oversees and which joins research, development, regulatory innovation and technology deployment across strategic sectors. Sandbox Dubai already runs regulatory programmes in property technology and healthcare, and its general aim is to put businesses and regulators together around technologies that need new regulatory approaches.

Dubai has been widening this track. In October, the Dubai Future Foundation launched the Agentic AI for Government Services Accelerator through Dubai Future Accelerators, working with Digital Dubai and the Dubai Electronic Security Center, to prototype and deploy agentic AI-powered government services quickly while building in digital compliance, cybersecurity and governance requirements.

Sandbox Dubai is also listed as a transformational initiative under Dubai Economic Agenda D33, which targets doubling Dubai's economy over the decade and putting the city among the world's three largest city economies.

How to apply

The AI Sandbox is open to companies worldwide — those already established in Dubai or elsewhere in the UAE, and those planning to set up locally. Selection weighs the level of innovation, market readiness, how relevant the regulatory or policy challenge is, and potential impact. Applying does not guarantee a place, and the support offered depends on what each selected use case needs.

The Dubai Future Foundation said applications remain open until 18 December 2026. Companies that clear the application and evaluation stages move into structured experimentation with regulators and government entities.

Separately, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed approved new targets for Dubai AI Campus.