Organisers Say World’s Largest AI-First Expo Will Bring Together More Than 400 Companies.
Microsoft, VDURA and IFS are set to showcase real-world artificial intelligence applications across government, research and heavy industry at Ai Everything Abu Dhabi 2026, taking place on October 6 and 7 at the ADNEC Centre.
Among the projects being highlighted are the rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot to 35,000 Abu Dhabi Government employees, a university’s overhaul of its data infrastructure to support research ranging from water science to aerospace, and an AI agent that one company estimates could generate annual savings of $3 million.
The event is organised by inD and hosted by the Department of Government Enablement – Abu Dhabi (DGE), with Solutions+, a Mubadala company, serving as Global Partner.
According to organisers, the event will bring together more than 400 AI-first companies and over 180 speakers, alongside policymakers, investors and business leaders from more than 70 countries. Organisers describe it as the world’s largest AI-first expo and summit.
Copilot for government employees
The deployment of Microsoft 365 Copilot forms part of Abu Dhabi’s ambition to become the world’s first fully AI-native government by 2027.
Microsoft says the initiative is designed to help government employees make more informed decisions, simplify processes and devote more time to delivering public services. The company says the programme is supported by security safeguards, responsible AI practices and in-country data residency.
Amr Kamel, Managing Director of Microsoft UAE, said one of the most significant changes taking place is the transition from viewing AI simply as a tool to treating it as a collaborative teammate.
He said employees will increasingly work alongside AI agents capable of reasoning, planning and carrying out tasks across workflows, while human judgement and accountability continue to play a central role.
Microsoft describes this emerging workplace model as the “Frontier Firm”, where employees collaborate with AI tools and autonomous agents to carry out everyday tasks and workflows.
At Ai Everything Abu Dhabi 2026, the technology company will showcase Microsoft 365 Copilot experiences, Azure AI capabilities, cybersecurity solutions and innovations developed by its partners.
Data storage to power research
VDURA, which develops high-performance data storage technology for AI factories and neoclouds, will showcase its Data Platform V12 in the Middle East for the first time.
The platform is designed to automatically place data on the most appropriate type of storage. According to VDURA, this approach can help organisations make more efficient use of expensive computing infrastructure and keep processing capacity focused on productive workloads.
V12 was recently recognised as AI Data Management Solution of the Year at the 2026 AI Breakthrough Awards.
New Mexico State University (NMSU), a Carnegie R1 research institution, is among the organisations using VDURA’s technology. Researchers working across fields including agriculture, aerospace and biomedicine needed a common platform capable of handling large-scale simulations and AI model training without separate systems competing for computing resources. The university records more than $141 million in annual research expenditure.
The system, operational since August 2026, combines NVMe flash storage with high-capacity hard drives on a single platform. VDURA says the setup delivers flash-level responsiveness for frequently accessed research data while allowing larger datasets to be stored more economically than with an all-flash architecture.
Ken Claffey, CEO of VDURA, said the focus of AI infrastructure is increasingly moving from model training towards large-scale inference, creating new demands on how data storage systems operate.
AI moves into heavy industry
IFS, a provider of industrial AI software, will demonstrate how artificial intelligence can be applied across asset-intensive industries such as ports, utilities, aerospace and defence, oil and gas, manufacturing and energy.
The company argues that simply identifying an asset at risk of failure does not solve the underlying problem. Once an issue is detected, organisations still need to organise repairs, source the required parts and ensure the right workers are available at the right time.
IFS sees this gap between identifying a potential problem and completing the necessary action as one of the areas where industrial AI can deliver significant value.
Suliman Gaouda, Regional Vice President for IFS AI across Asia Pacific, Japan, the Middle East and Africa, said sectors such as ports, rail, utilities, data centres, aviation and defence are bringing new assets into operation faster than the systems needed to manage them are being developed.
He said one of the biggest opportunities lies in capturing asset information and maintenance requirements from the moment an asset is handed over, rather than adding those systems several years later at significantly higher cost.
IFS points to Kodiak Gas Services as an example of the potential impact. The company projects that its Material Replenisher agent could deliver annual savings of $3 million and save around 90,000 technician hours.
At Ai Everything Abu Dhabi 2026, IFS will showcase three live demonstrations of its technology.
IFS Loops Digital Workers will demonstrate how AI can perform tasks across multiple business systems. IFS Nexus Black Resolve will show how faults can be documented using images and voice, after which AI can diagnose the problem and provide guided repair instructions. IFS Operational Intelligence will demonstrate how deteriorating equipment can be identified and a work request automatically initiated.
AI leaders take the stage
The New Intelligence Summit will bring together ministers, senior government officials and industry leaders to examine how education, workforce skills and organisational readiness can support the wider adoption of artificial intelligence.
Mariam Al Musharrekh, Director General of the Department of Government Enablement, will discuss Abu Dhabi’s experience in developing a government workforce equipped to work with AI.
Prof. Ebrahim Al Hajri, President of Khalifa University of Science and Technology, will examine how education and learning need to evolve as people increasingly work alongside intelligent systems, while ensuring human judgement and intuition remain central.
Sean Spicer, Senior Vice President of Digital Technology at ADNOC, will participate in a panel titled “Frontier AI Enterprise”, exploring the impact of agentic AI across large-scale energy operations.
He will be joined by Nickson Dicson, Head of Data & AI MENAT at AWS, and Simon Al Khaled, Vice President of Public Sector, ECEMEA, and UAE Country Lead and Managing Director at Oracle.
ADNOC’s ENERGYai, described as the world’s first agentic AI solution developed specifically for the energy sector, was created by AIQ, the Abu Dhabi-based venture formed by Presight and ADNOC Group.
AIQ CEO Dennis Jol will join Dr Amal Abdulrahim, Assistant Undersecretary and Chief AI & Innovation Officer at the Ministry of Climate Change & Environment, for a discussion on how artificial intelligence is helping energy producers transform their operations and business models.
