The Smart City vision of Dubai is to make Dubai the happiest city on Earth over the past 40 years. Dubai’s rapid development in various economic sectors meant that traditional processes needed to be continuously updated to ensure efficiency and speed. Government effectiveness became increasingly imperative especially in Government to Consumer (G2C) and Government to Government (G2G) services.
Dubai Leveraging emerging technologies and initiatives
Leveraging emerging technologies such as Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence, along with harnessing Data Science capabilities, we are recreating everyday experiences for residents and visitors of Dubai, making them more personalized, seamless, efficient, and impactful.
PAPERLESS
We are building a future without paper. In 2021, the Dubai government will go completely paper-free, eliminating more than 1 billion pieces of paper used for government transactions every year. Working across government entities, our integrated framework marks another major step towards making Dubai a smart city of the future and improving happiness levels for staff and citizens alike – saving time, resources, and the environment.
Dubai’s paperless government strategy
As a fully paperless government, 100% of internal processes and customer-facing services will be digitized in 2021. That means the government will no longer issue or ask for paper documents across all of its operations.
As part of this transition process, we will focus on implementing the necessary technology to enable paper-free transactions. We will also create a legal framework to address digital procedures and will overcome any cultural and customary barriers in the move away from paper.
By eliminating the 1 billion pieces of paper used by the government each year, we could save enough money to feed 4 million children, prevent 130,000 trees from being cut down, and save 40 hours of productivity to give people more time to spend doing what they love.
We have launched the ‘100% Paperless’ Stamp initiative as part of the ‘Government Development Track’ – one of the six tracks announced by the Dubai Council, which was inaugurated at the beginning of 2020 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai.
The ‘Stamp’ is awarded to government entities that have fully implemented the Dubai Paperless Strategy as a symbol reflecting their complete transition into entities that offer digital, paperless services. The initiative recognizes entities that made outstanding efforts to implement the strategy, offering their services via fully digital mediums backed by an efficient internal digital infrastructure.
Smart City Dubai, UAE
3.007 Smart Points
Blockchain in Dubai’s Smart City
The Dubai Blockchain Strategy will help Dubai achieve the vision of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum by making “Dubai [will be] the first city fully powered by Blockchain by 2020” and make Dubai the happiest city on earth. The strategy will be using 3 strategic pillars Government Efficiency, Industry Creation, and International Leadership.
Dubai’s strategy of how to shape Blockchain technology
Launched by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan, the Dubai Blockchain Strategy, is a result of a collaboration between the Smart Dubai Office and the Dubai Future Foundation to continually explore and evaluate the latest technology innovations that demonstrate an opportunity to deliver more seamless, safe, efficient, and impactful city experiences.
Blockchain technology is a new, powerful tool that is already shaping the future of the Internet with simple, safe, and secure transactions. The Dubai Blockchain Strategy will help Dubai achieve the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to create the future of Dubai, and make Dubai the happiest city on earth.
New Wave of Economic Opportunity & Digital Innovation
The Dubai Blockchain Strategy will usher in economic opportunity for all sectors in the city, and cement Dubai’s reputation as a global technology leader, in line with Smart Dubai’s mandate to become the global leader in the smart economy, fuelling entrepreneurship and global competitiveness.
Dubai has a long tradition of leading digital innovation for the region. Now, for the first time, Dubai will be pioneering the application of new technology for cities and sharing it with the world. When successful, Dubai will be the first blockchain-powered government, driving the future economy.
“Adopting Blockchain technology Dubai stands to unlock 5.5 billion dirhams in savings annually in document processing alone — equal to the one Burj Khalifa’s worth of value every year.” The Dubai Blockchain Strategy establishes a roadmap for the introduction of Blockchain technology for Dubai and the creation of an open platform to share the technology with cities across the globe. The Dubai Blockchain strategy is built on three pillars of government efficiency, industry creation, and international leadership.
Startups Support
Smart Dubai and our partners in the UAE government are committed to transforming the UAE into the new testbed for startups and entrepreneurs to innovate and scale emerging technologies. In the past two years, we have launched and continue to operate a number of programs.
Dubai’s Strategy
Global Blockchain Challenge
Over the past two years, Smart Dubai has been hosting the Global Blockchain Challenge inviting Blockchain startups from across the globe to pitch their latest blockchain innovations which can be potentially implemented in Dubai. The last challenge shortlisted 17 finalists and announced the top three winners on Thursday 3rd May 2018 at the Future Blockchain Summit. Following on from the successful inaugural edition in 2017, the 2018 challenge drew 200 applications from companies in 85 cities across 53 industries.
Dubai Smart City Accelerator
The Dubai Smart City Accelerator is the leading accelerator supporting innovative companies in IoT and Connectivity, Urban Automation and Mobility, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Open City Data, Sustainable Cities and Living, Smart Government, and the Smart Retail industry.
Operated by Startupbootcamp, the global network of industry-focused startup accelerators, the program targets startups that are developing innovative solutions to help make cities smarter and overcome significant challenges due to congestion, waste, and energy to improve the quality of people’s lives. It will focus on projects that provide solutions to everyday challenges, built around smart buildings, transportation, intelligent logistics, smart lifestyles, and smart planning & maintenance.
Dubai Future Accelerators
Dubai Future Accelerators (DFA) is an intensive 9-week program pairing the world’s most exciting technology companies with leading government organizations to create transformational solutions.
Smart Dubai Office has joined the DFA program working on challenges utilizing emerging technologies such as Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and the Internet of Things.
Happiness Agenda
We want to make Dubai the happiest city on earth. As we transform the future of Dubai through smart technology and innovation, we have prioritized happiness as our primary goal. By addressing the fundamental needs of our residents and visitors, we can enhance everybody’s short- and long-term happiness and wellbeing, and create a global benchmark for other cities to follow our lead.
Strategy to measure and improve happiness in Dubai
Our strategy for a Smart Dubai has happiness at its core. As the city is transformed, we are using the Happiness Agenda as a one-of-a-kind, scientific, and systematic approach to raising and sustaining happiness levels and measuring the impact on our residents and visitors. We hope to discover people’s wants and needs, to inspire positive change, to build awareness and encourage self-reflection, and to predict the impact of happiness by using our city-wide Happiness Index. To help us achieve our goals, our Happiness Champions are a key part of this integrated system to spread happiness through all parts of our society. Leading the implementation of the Happiness Agenda, they are working as ambassadors across a growing range of government- and non-government entities, embedding happiness into the DNA of these organizations. Our ultimate aim is to create a happy, positive experience for all, one that is seamless, safe, personalized, impactful, and efficient.
Artificial intelligence principles and ethics
AI’s rapid advancement and innovation potential across a range of fields are incredibly exciting. Yet a thorough and open discussion around AI ethics and the principles organizations using this technology must consider, is urgently needed.
Dubai’s Ethical AI Toolkit has been created to provide practical help across a city ecosystem. It supports industry, academia, and individuals in understanding how AI systems can be used responsibly. It consists of principles and guidelines, and a self-assessment tool for developers to assess their platforms.
Our aim is to offer unified guidance that is continuously improved in collaboration with our communities. The eventual goal is to reach widespread agreement and adoption of commonly-agreed policies to inform the ethical use of AI not just in Dubai but around the world.
AI Lab in Dubai Smart City tactics
Our first-of-its-kind Artificial Intelligence (AI) Lab is accelerating Dubai towards becoming the smartest city in the world. We are harnessing the power of machine learning to integrate AI into government services and city experiences in order to improve our citizens’ overall quality of life, boost happiness levels, and maximize visitor satisfaction.
Smart City strategy
We are leading Dubai’s AI Roadmap as part of our vision to transform the city into an efficient, seamless, impactful, and, ultimately, happy experience for all. Established in partnership with IBM, our AI Lab is working with a growing network of partners from across governmental and private sectors, providing the essential tools and go-to-market support that enables them to implement AI services and applications within their respective fields. We are expanding our knowledge through workshops and training sessions, developing individuals’ skills, transforming the way we engage with our citizens and visitors, and disrupting traditional business processes. We hope to infuse AI into the fabric of the city and its operating systems, and use this ground-breaking technology to discover new pathways to create a blueprint for a new and exciting future.
UAE Pass
UAE Pass is the National Digital Identity and Digital Signature solution for the UAE. Download UAE Pass today to access various government services by any federal or local government entity through one application, there will be no need to remember multiple usernames and passwords anymore. UAE Pass will also soon allow digital signatures to legally complete transactions or obtain ownership of assets, so there will be no need for service center visits to process any paperwork. You will soon be able to start a business, buy a car, or rent a house in a few clicks! Download the UAE Pass app and save time for what you enjoy the most.
Rashid
Get credible and reliable advice on a range of city topics from Dubai’s smart city assistant, Rashid.
Smart Dubai debuted its AI-powered advisor “Saad”, later renaming it “Rashid” to honor H.H. the late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the pioneer of Dubai’s renaissance. The program uses artificial intelligence to offer official and reliable answers to customers’ questions regarding the necessary procedures, documents, and requirements to conduct various transactions – all according to the extensive database partnered with many Government entities in the Rashid project.
As the first cognitive computing system in Dubai, Rashid aggregates information from the databases of various government and private entities in the emirate, making it the virtual assistant that can answer questions about living and working in Dubai; citizens, residents, and tourists may refer to Rashid as their trusted advisor on many topics, such as starting a business, transportation, licensing, visas and residency, passports and certificates attestation, in addition to entertainment, parks, shopping and more.
Going one step further, Smart Dubai upgraded the system with an advanced tool allowing participating government entities to update information about their services seamlessly and autonomously, thus ensuring consistent up-to-date responses.
Dubai Pulse for all citizen’s needs
Dubai Pulse is the digital backbone powering the Smart City, to help spread happiness among all Dubai residents and visitors.
The Dubai Pulse is the next-generation digital operating system designed to benefit individuals, companies, the private sector, and the government. This unique platform will offer city services, City Data (Big Data) Orchestration and Digital Identity, as well as Cloud and IoT capabilities. Smart Dubai’s strategic partners, including Dubai Government entities, may leverage from Dubai Pulse and benefit from the available open and shared data.
DubaiNow Portal for the all what’s going on there
Instance Digital access to over 55 government services, all in one place. The First Omni-channel service platform for Dubai. DubaiNow portal helps you manage your bills, track your visa, renew your trade license, register your car, and a lot more.
In the implementation of the directives of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council, for integrating services in one platform that enables customers to access all services and conduct all transactions, the Smart Dubai Government Establishment (SDG) has launched DubaiNow, the first unified platform of its kind that meets most of the daily needs of Dubai population through more than 55 smart services provided by 24 government and private entities in single user experience. DubaiNow platform makes city services more seamless and efficient.
Dubai’s Happiness meter application
The Happiness Meter is one of Dubai’s first strategic ‘smart city’ initiatives. As the world’s first, city-wide, live sentiment capture engine, the meter represents a measurement gauge for the happiness goal.
We launched the first Happiness Meter capturing customer Happiness levels at every touchpoint. Happiness Meter, capturing customer happiness data in a consolidated city dashboard. The Happiness Meter Dashboard delivers a citywide view of customer happiness – the HM.
The Happiness Meter is one of Dubai’s first strategic ‘smart city’ initiatives. As the world’s first, city-wide, live sentiment capture engine, the meter represents a measurement gauge for the happiness goal. However, the Happiness Meter is more than just another silo tool to collect experience feedback: through the centralized data dashboard, a map of happiness across the city can be created, which allows private sector and government entity hosts of Happiness Meter touchpoints to relate and rank customer experiences within industry sectors and geographic areas, as well as differentiate between direct and web-based interactions.
The initiative is among the first of its kind in the world to gauge delightful experiences across an entire city, including the private sector and government entities in parallel. The Happiness Meter can be easily integrated into existing feedback collection, or be a stand-alone unit within web sites or physical locations.
With the purpose to support the happiness goal of Smart Dubai, the Meter is not set up to generate competition between the host entities in private and governmental sectors. Data provided to the host in the dashboard is hence anonymous, giving a comparative output without identifying other participating entities.
Overall, the Happiness Meter presents the easiest interface towards the user who will mark one of three cases, (1) satisfied, (2) neutral, (3) dissatisfied, generating simple but most valuable output data for the hosting entity. Through its simplicity and ease of use, the Meter integrates seamlessly into the experience flow of residents and visitors of Dubai while creating meaningful data towards the goal of “making Dubai the happiest city on earth.”
