The United Arab Emirates is pursuing an ambitious goal to become an AI-native government by 2027, offering valuable lessons for Nigeria in digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence integration. Abu Dhabi, the UAE's capital, is redesigning its public administration around citizens, residents, and businesses, going beyond simply introducing AI tools into existing bureaucratic processes. This approach focuses on changing how government operates, with AI agents able to conduct transactions on behalf of residents.
Director-General of Abu Dhabi's Department of Government Enablement, Wesam Lootah, emphasized that achieving this goal requires a fundamental redesign of public administration. "It's not just like sprinkling AI use cases around an existing process. It's really about rethinking how the government operates from the ground up," Lootah explained. This distinction is crucial for Nigeria, where government agencies have introduced digital platforms and developed policies on AI adoption, cloud infrastructure, and digital public services.
In Nigeria, Dr. Bosun Tijani has proposed a single digital platform, initially under the name OneGOV, for citizens to access government services. This idea is part of the ministry's digital transformation agenda, announced in 2023, to make government services accessible through one online gateway. Lootah outlined three layers underpinning Abu Dhabi's approach: interaction between residents and government through TAMM, coordinating services across government institutions, and internal functions such as human resources and procurement.
Abu Dhabi's unified digital government platform, TAMM, brings services from multiple public agencies and private-sector providers together through one website and mobile app, offering over 1,100 public and private sector services. The emirate aims to use AI to automate 80% of services in internal functions, allowing public servants to focus on decision-making and service improvement. Chief Executive Officer of Presight, Thomas Pramotedham, noted that the effectiveness of TAMM depends on the infrastructure enabling AI agents to work across government.
Pramotedham emphasized that legacy systems, separate datasets, and services operating in different environments must be brought together to create a seamless experience for users. The underlying integration is largely invisible to residents but determines whether services can communicate and function as a connected system. Digital public infrastructure is crucial, involving connectivity, data centers, computing capacity, digital identity, payments, skilled personnel, and regulation.
Director-General of TAMM, Mohamed Al Askar, reported that Abu Dhabi has invested heavily in digital infrastructure over approximately 15 years, giving the government a foundation to develop more advanced services. Al Askar disclosed customer satisfaction of 94.5% and 95% of customer inquiries handled by AI. About 70% of transactions that do not require back-end intervention are completed end-to-end.
The lesson for Nigeria is that AI adoption in government requires more than a chatbot or a standalone application; systems must exchange reliable information, authenticate users, process payments, and complete transactions across institutional boundaries. Nigeria is building digital infrastructure, but the work is at different stages, from policy development and financing to physical deployment and digital-service integration.
Key points
- UAE's AI-native government model by 2027 offers lessons for Nigeria's digital infrastructure and AI integration.
- Nigeria's digital ambitions require a fundamental redesign of public administration and digital infrastructure.
- AI adoption in government needs trustworthy systems, reliable information exchange, and user authentication.
