UAE Digital Islamic Bank Ruya Goes Live With Agentic AI In Production

ruya, the UAE’s digital-first Islamic community bank, and Magure, a UAE-headquartered enterprise AI company, have announced a long-term strategic partnership to make ruya an AI-native bank. The plan places intelligence across customer service, operations and risk, with three agentic AI use cases already live in production.

Christoph Koster, CEO of ruya, said: “We didn't set out to run AI projects we set out to build a bank where intelligence is part of the foundation,” adding that the bank’s ethical, Shari'ah-compliant approach requires strong safeguards for customer data. He said the system runs inside ruya’s own environment, governed end to end, with a UAE partner.

The live use cases, designed and delivered by Magure, support business customers opening accounts through seamless onboarding and quicker account opening. Agentic AI handles document analysis, verification checks and case summaries, while ruya staff focus on decisions. Several other transactions are processed faster and more accurately, with a human reviewer kept in the loop.

The capability runs entirely inside ruya’s private cloud, using open-source large language models fully integrated with the bank’s systems. Ruya retains full ownership and control of its AI capability, and no personally identifiable information leaves the bank’s infrastructure. Magure chief executive Akhil Koka said the work is not a pilot or a demo, but production AI in a regulated bank.

Ruya said the partnership is built on Magure’s MagOneAI platform, creating a single governed AI fabric for customers, operations, risk, compliance and employees. The roadmap includes collections, compliance, credit support, a customer AI assistant, personalisation, customer analytics and RuyaAI, a secure private assistant for employees.

The partnership is aligned with the UAE’s ambition in artificial intelligence and the Central Bank of the UAE’s expectations for responsible AI, including board-level governance, transparency, explainability, human oversight of high-impact decisions and consumer protection. Magure said it is ISO 9001, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 certified, with SOC 2 Type II attestation.