The UAE’s minister for artificial intelligence said airports should not replace staff with robots and AI, urging aviation organisations to take calculated risks rather than avoid innovation altogether.
Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, made the remarks at ForsaTEK 2025, the Emirates Group’s annual innovation and technology forum held on 23 June 2025. It was the third edition of the event.
‘You don’t want to replace the full airport with robots and AI,’ Al Olama said. ‘But the reality is you need to engage and inject humans where necessary to provide this extra sense of humane service that is exceptionally well-done leveraging technology, but there is a human in it.’
Calculated risk and the UAE AI minister airports message on innovation
Al Olama told attendees that the core challenge for airlines and airports is balancing reputation with the need to move forward. ‘Today, the issue that you guys have, and this is an issue with every government, and this is true, not just for Emirates Airlines, it’s true for any airport, is you build that reputation,’ he said.
‘So you can’t actually put that reputation at risk by taking too much of a risk without having it calculated. But you need to look at things differently,’ he added.
ForsaTEK 2025 was opened by His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive Emirates Airline and Group. The forum focused on how AI, robotics and the Internet of Things will reshape aviation, and the role human factors play in adopting technology at scale.
Big Tech partnerships and data sovereignty
Al Olama said the UAE plans to announce several partnerships with major technology companies over the coming months, without providing further detail.
He said early access to frontier technology gives the country a competitive edge, provided it does not require trading away sensitive data or control. ‘Early access in a way where you don’t have to trade off your sensitive data,’ he said. ‘You don’t have to trade off losing control. And that’s one thing that we’re working on.’
Al Olama was appointed as the world’s first Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence in October 2017. In 2023 he was additionally named Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office at the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs, while retaining his ministerial portfolio.
He also chairs the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy and serves as Managing Director of the World Government Summit, and has led the UAE Artificial Intelligence Strategy and the Dubai Metaverse Strategy.
Al Olama sits on the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence and holds membership in the World Economic Forum’s AI Governance Council.
Separately, a new UAE Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority was announced on 24 June 2026, with Al Olama appointed as its chair. The authority is to set standards for data and AI management across federal bodies and work to increase the digital economy’s contribution to national GDP.
The UAE government has not yet confirmed a date for the Big Tech partnership announcements Al Olama referenced at the forum.
