UAE Advances AI Adoption In Banking Through EIF Innovation Hub Workshop With UBF And KPMG

The Emirates Institute of Finance (EIF) Innovation Hub, in partnership with the UAE Banks Federation (UBF) and KPMG Middle East, recently concluded a two-day AI Innovation Workshop. This event aimed to promote the responsible use of Agentic AI within the UAE's banking sector. The workshop served as a platform for financial innovation, organised by UBF and facilitated by KPMG Middle East.

Agentic AI represents a new class of intelligent systems capable of autonomous reasoning and adaptive learning. It is poised to revolutionise how banks manage risk, prevent fraud, and enhance customer experiences. The workshop was held at the EIF Innovation Hub in Dubai and brought together senior leaders and innovation specialists from major UAE banks such as First Abu Dhabi Bank, Emirates NBD, Mashreq, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, and HSBC.

The event provided an opportunity for collaboration among participants to develop AI-driven solutions addressing key priorities like risk management, compliance, customer experience, and operational efficiency. The forum adopted a hackathon-style format that encouraged real-time exploration of Agentic AI applications through design thinking and iteration.

Teams identified challenges, created prototypes, and presented their ideas to a panel comprising members from the EIF Innovation Hub, UBF, selected banks, and KPMG Middle East. The focus was on problem clarity, technical feasibility, AI guardrails, and business impact. Participants utilised KPMG Middle East’s Innovation Funnel Framework to move through challenge definition, ideation, experimentation, and scaling.

Marwan Abunwas Almheiri, General Manager of the Emirates Institute of Finance (EIF), stated: "The EIF Innovation Hub was established to drive collaboration between regulators, banks, and ecosystem partners in shaping the future of financial services. This initiative reflects our shared commitment to advancing responsible innovation and ensuring that emerging technologies such as Agentic AI are applied safely and effectively across the sector."

Jamal Saleh from UAE Banks Federation highlighted: "Through initiatives such as this, we continue to strengthen the UAE’s position as a regional leader in financial innovation and digital transformation. The collaboration between UBF, the EIF Innovation Hub, and KPMG underscores the sector’s shared commitment to advancing the safe and effective use of AI. Our focus is to ensure that innovation serves people builds trust and drives long-term competitiveness across the financial system."

AI Adoption in Financial Services

Jamal Habahbeh from KPMG Middle East added: "Agentic AI is redefining how institutions approach automation and decision making. Backed by the UAE government’s bold national investment in artificial intelligence, EIF Innovation Hub is taking the lead in driving AI adoption across the financial sector moving from theory to responsible real-world implementation. By embedding design-led experimentation within strong governance frameworks UAE’s banking ecosystem is setting a global benchmark for innovation and trust."

This initiative aligns with the UAE's National AI Strategy 2031 by fostering collaboration among regulators banks and global advisors. Insights gained from this workshop will inform future innovation sprints under the EIF Innovation Hub further advancing AI-driven transformation across UAE’s banking sector.

With inputs from WAM