AI & Innovation · 27 Aug 2026
Omar bin Tariq
Chief Technology Officer · Gulf Digital Authority
“Governance is not the brake on AI. It is the thing that lets you accelerate without crashing.”
Omar bin TariqChief Technology Officer
Gulf Digital Authority
Gulf Digital Authority
Responsible for one of the region's largest public-sector technology portfolios, Omar bin Tariq explains how the UAE is governing artificial intelligence in production environments.
- What does responsible deployment look like in practice?
- A named owner for every model in production, documented data lineage, and a rollback plan. It is unglamorous, and it is the difference between a system you can defend publicly and one you cannot.
- Where has AI delivered the clearest public value so far?
- Service triage and translation. Both are measurable, both reduce waiting time for residents, and both fail visibly, which means problems surface quickly instead of accumulating.
- What worries you?
- Organisations deploying systems they cannot explain. If you cannot describe how a decision was reached, you should not be automating that decision yet.
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