rtificial intelligence or AI as it is more commonly referred to will have a strong economic impact in the U.A.E., a new study has found.

According to a report by Accenture, AI will boost economic growth within the U.A.E. by 1.6 percentage points, adding $182 billion to the national economy by 2035. The report examined the impact of using AI on 15 industries in the U.A.E. and 13 in Saudi Arabia.

As per the findings, AI was found to have the maximum impact on the financial services, healthcare, transport and storage industries with increases of $37 billion, $22 billion and $19 billion, respectively, in their annual gross value added (GVA), which measures the output value of all goods and services in a sector.

AI is also set to lead to an increase of $6 billion and $8 billion in GVA within labor intensive industries such as education and construction respectively, the report found. Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia, AI will increase GVA by $215 billion.

The findings come as the Middle East and specifically the U.A.E. look to AI to diversify away from its dependence on oil revenues.

Last year, the U.A.E. revealed an artificial intelligence strategy that largely aims to speed up the government’s productivity and improve the performance of all official departments. The country also appointed a minister for artificial intelligence to spearhead the development of its AI strategy.

Within the U.A.E., the emirate of Dubai has been at the forefront of automating processes. Dubai has introduced robo-cops, aiming to transform nearly 25% of its patrolling taskforce to robots by 2030. The emirate has also started testing the world’s first autonomous taxi-pods.

Meanwhile Saudi Arabia recently awarded a robot its citizenship, signaling its willingness to embrace AI as it develops its non-oil economy.

“The level of growth that AI stands to bring to the U.A.E.’s economy is unparalleled,” said Amr El Saadani, managing director of Accenture’s Financial Services practice in the Middle East and Turkey. “The nation’s leaders already understand the impact of this powerful technology, evidenced by the appointment of the first Minister of AI last year.

“While AI-led growth will be felt across a wide variety of industries, the financial services sector has the most to gain — which isn’t surprising, given that many of its jobs can be significantly augmented with AI and machine learning. In addition, Accenture reports have already shown that banking executives globally are taking action to transform their businesses through the use of AI.”

SOURCE: https://www.forbesmiddleeast.com/en/naguib-sawiris-beltone-financial-to-acquire-significant-stake-in-oragroup/