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The United Arab Emirates has launched a comprehensive overhaul of its entry rules, highlighted by the introduction of the AI Specialist Visa, as part of a strategic national effort to secure its economic future in the post-oil era.
The UAE has confirmed new, specialised visit visa categories on September 29, the most notable of which is the AI Specialist Visa, designed to fast-track entry for top-tier global talent in fields like machine learning, data science, and robotics. These are not residence permits but short-term, dedicated entry passes that require the expert to be sponsored by a licensed UAE technology entity. This administrative move is the direct execution of the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031, which aims to have AI contribute approximately 14% of the country’s GDP by the end of the decade.
The AI visa ensures that the vast infrastructure investments the UAE has made, such as creating the open-source Falcon Large Language Model (LLM) and establishing the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), are fully utilised by the world’s best researchers and developers.
BTB So What?
The UAE is already pioneering itself in the fiercely competitive AI race, and the introduction of the new AI Specialist Visa feels like the next, most crucial mechanism in its strategy. In the global technology landscape, many have argued that AI is the new “cloud” (the foundational resource everyone is racing to acquire) and reducing barriers to entry for top specialists is a key part of that pursuit. This visa directly addresses the fundamental economic reality that if you cannot easily transfer high-value skills across borders, there is no point in playing the game.
The reforms also go far beyond technology, revealing the UAE’s strategic bet on knowledge and creativity as the new economic engines, exemplified by the addition of the Entertainment Visa and the Event Visa. The AI Specialist Visa immediately transforms the UAE into a “rapid deployment zone” for global tech talent, allowing firms to quickly move specialised teams in for high-value projects and accelerating digital transformation across all local sectors, from healthcare to smart city management. Simultaneously, there will be an undoubted reduction in the logistical friction for international creative businesses, allowing them to foster a local ecosystem that generates revenue from production, e-sports, and global licensing, not just from traditional tourism.