• Eng. Majed Al Mesmar: This initiative stems from TDRA’s role as an enabler of digital transformation, and aims to enhance the ability of government entities to provide easy and fast services to all customers.
  • It provides government entities with flexibility in building and deploying AI solutions and models in the visual, audio and linguistic fields, and allows big data analysis and machine learning to make appropriate decisions, all through application programming interfaces (APIs).

UAE – Conforming to the rapid technological transformation in today's world, the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) has launched an initiative to support the Federal Digital Network (FedNet) with artificial intelligence (AI) services, in a major development that enhances the digital transformation journey in the UAE. This development is considered a paradigm shift in the main services provided by FedNet to government entities, based on leveraging the enormous potential of AI.

Commenting on this development, H.E. Eng. Majed Sultan Al Mesmar, TDRA Director General, said: “Digital transformations today are characterized by rapid acceleration, and what we are witnessing in 2023 indicates that keeping pace with the current era requires an unprecedented pace and a high ability to adapt and absorb new technologies. AI services on AI-supported FedNet are a great step in the digital transformation process, and an important element in enhancing the ability of government entities to provide easy and fast services to all customers, which reflects TDRA’s role as an enabler of digital transformation.”

Through cooperation with Microsoft and Kagool,” a Microsoft advanced solutions partner in Data and AI”, FedNet, in its new version, will provide a set of services that fall under three pillars:

Applied AI that contributes to enhancing productivity and efficiency by reducing the time needed by developers to update procedures and processes, analyzing conversations to improve customer experiences, as well as automating document processing to speed up work mechanisms.

Cognitive AI, which refers to simulating human behavior and thinking to solve complex problems; It intelligently deals with complex problems, leading to more accurate results.

And machine learning, which uses algorithms that allow computers to self-learn by analyzing big data, extracting results from it and converting it into value.

FedNet is one of the key digital government enablers in the UAE, and it receives special attention due to its strategic importance and role in the digital transformation process. FedNet supports more than 35 federal entities and more than 5,000 virtual servers. In 2023, FedNet achieved the VMware Cloud Verified certificate for the sovereign cloud category. The importance of this certificate stems from the fact that FedNet takes into account the highest standards of cybersecurity and national privacy, and that all the data is stored and processed in accordance with the relevant UAE laws.

Thanks to these developments, in addition to the infrastructure supported by high-speed Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), FedNet has become an advanced AI platform, providing government entities with agility to build and deploy high-quality AI solutions and models in the visual, audio and linguistic fields. It allows big data analysis and machine learning to enable administrators to make proper decisions, all through application programming interfaces (APIs).

Kagool is a leading global Data and AI System Integrator specializing in advanced Data and AI solutions, helping customers embrace cloud adoption at pace and scale leveraging proprietary Cloud accelerator products.

Terms: 

Federal Digital Network: One of the initiatives of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority, aimed at providing a technological infrastructure to enhance and improve the user experience within the digital government sector.

 Artificial Intelligence Services: A collection of pre-trained machine learning models that facilitate the application of artificial intelligence in various tasks for developers.

 Applied Artificial Intelligence: Artificial intelligence services that help developers reduce the time they need to update processes and procedures.

 Cognitive Artificial Intelligence Services: They are general services that act as a fundamental drive for applied artificial intelligence services. This means that applied artificial intelligence services rely on cognitive services to improve usage cases.

 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs): These units assist in processing graphics-related tasks such as images, effects, and videos. They have now been adapted to enhance the computational operations inherent in artificial intelligence.

 Machine Learning: It is an area within artificial intelligence that refers to the ability of information technology systems in machines to independently find solutions to problems by perceiving different patterns in data.

 Application Programming Interface (API): An interface that an application or computer system can use to access a set of functions or programs belonging to an external entity.

About TDRA:

The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) undertakes the task of supervising the telecommunications and digital government sectors in the UAE in accordance with the Telecommunications Law issued by Federal law by Decree No. (3) of 2003 and its amendments, and in accordance with Decree No. 23 issued on September 27, 2020, amending some provisions of Federal Law by Decree No. (3) of 2003 regarding the regulation of the telecommunication sector, and adding the “digital government” to the functions and name of the authority.

TDRA’s regulatory role is to ensure the provision of distinguished telecommunications services, develop the telecommunications sector, ensure the interests of the parties, apply the relevant policy and regulatory frameworks, develop human resources, and encourage research and development, to ensure the UAE’s leading regional and global position in the telecommunications sector.

In the field of enabling digital transformation, TDRA is responsible for supervising the federal digital government under Law No. 3 of 2011. Since then, TDRA has become responsible for digital transformation at the national level through two strategic goals: enhancing the smart lifestyle, and Leadership in smart technological infrastructure in the UAE.