UAE Banks Deploy Agentic AI Amid Rising Cyberattacks
Emirates NBD and Commercial Bank of Dubai are integrating agentic AI to modernize operations and counter a surge in daily cyberattacks.
Major lenders in the United Arab Emirates are integrating artificial intelligence into core operations to modernize productivity, risk management, and cybersecurity. At the Dubai FinTech Summit 2026, Emirates NBD revealed it is managing over 150 AI initiatives and has become the first bank in the MENA region to deploy OpenAI GPT models using local infrastructure to comply with data residency laws.
Simultaneously, the Commercial Bank of Dubai is transitioning toward agentic AI—systems capable of autonomous decision-making—through partnerships with Microsoft, Silent Eight, and Comarch AI Wealth. This private sector acceleration aligns with a UAE government mandate to transition 50% of federal government operations to agentic AI by 2028.
The push for advanced AI comes as the UAE Cyber Security Council warns of a sharp increase in cyber threats. Daily attack attempts have risen from 200,000 to 700,000 following the outbreak of the US-Iran war on February 28, with cybercriminals increasingly using AI to create more sophisticated attack methods.
