Emirates NBD Becomes First MENA Bank to Adopt OpenAI's UAE AI Models

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Emirates NBD and OpenAI have announced an enterprise collaboration to bring advanced artificial intelligence models into the bank's operations using computing infrastructure located in the United Arab Emirates, as financial institutions seek ways to adopt AI without compromising sensitive data or regulatory requirements.

The agreement is expected to make Emirates NBD the first bank in the Middle East and North Africa to deploy OpenAI's GPT models using in-country inference infrastructure. The arrangement will allow the bank to introduce AI capabilities across customer services, risk management, compliance and internal operations.

Unlike conventional arrangements that may involve processing information on infrastructure outside a bank's home market, the collaboration is designed to support AI processing within the UAE. The approach addresses an important consideration for financial institutions, which must balance technological development with obligations surrounding customer information, operational security and regulatory oversight.

A central feature of the collaboration is the use of in-country inference infrastructure. Inference refers to the process through which a trained AI model analyzes information and generates responses or predictions when a user or software system submits a request.

Locating that processing infrastructure within the UAE is intended to help Emirates NBD manage where information is handled while adopting OpenAI's models across its business. Data residency is particularly relevant to banks because their systems routinely process financial records, customer information and other sensitive material.

The companies describe the arrangement as part of a broader move toward sovereign AI, an approach that emphasizes local control over certain aspects of AI infrastructure and data processing. In this case, the emphasis is on where models perform inference rather than on developing an entirely new AI model within the UAE.

Local inference infrastructure does not, by itself, establish that every element of an AI service remains within national borders. Questions about data storage, system access, model management and operational safeguards still depend on how individual services are configured.

Emirates NBD plans to introduce OpenAI's models across several areas of its business, including digital customer engagement, internal workflow automation, employee productivity and risk analysis.

Customer-facing applications could use the technology to support more personalized interactions through digital banking channels. The bank also intends to apply AI to knowledge-intensive work, where employees must review information, retrieve documents or complete processes involving multiple internal systems.

Risk management and compliance are another focus. According to the announcement, the bank plans to use advanced analytics to improve risk monitoring and regulatory compliance, helping employees review information more efficiently and identify areas that may require closer attention.

The bank intends to connect OpenAI's models to internal systems, application programming interfaces and enterprise data. These connections would allow AI applications to work with information and services already used within the organization rather than operating solely as standalone conversational tools.

The Emirates NBD collaboration is intended to support requirements relating to privacy, security, governance and operational resilience. Keeping inference infrastructure in the UAE may help address some data-location concerns, although compliance will continue to depend on the controls applied to each use case.

The initiative also aligns with the UAE National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031, which seeks to encourage AI development and adoption across priority sectors of the economy. The strategy provides a broader policy context for the agreement, although the collaboration itself is a commercial arrangement between Emirates NBD and OpenAI.

The OpenAI collaboration follows earlier efforts by Emirates NBD to expand its use of artificial intelligence and financial technology.

In June, the bank announced that it had ranked first in the inaugural Evident AI Index for Banks covering the Middle East and Africa. The assessment examined AI capabilities among 25 major banks in the region, including their talent, innovation, leadership and transparency.

Emirates NBD also announced a partnership with Techstars in July aimed at accelerating enterprise AI and fintech solutions. That initiative focused on identifying and developing technology that could be integrated into banking operations.

The new agreement with OpenAI adds a different element to those efforts by addressing access to AI models and the infrastructure required to run them. It also creates an opportunity to apply the technology across several departments rather than limiting its use to individual experiments.

Miguel Rio-Tinto, group chief digital and information officer at Emirates NBD, said: “Artificial Intelligence is central to the future of banking. Through our collaboration with OpenAI and access to in-country inference in the UAE, we are embedding frontier AI capabilities directly into our operating model. This ensures we can innovate at speed while maintaining the highest standards of governance, security and regulatory alignment. AI is not an experiment for us, it is a core capability that will define how we build, serve and scale.”

Farouk El Hamzawi, head of enterprise at OpenAI MENA, added: “With this first-in-region approach, Emirates NBD is setting a benchmark for how financial institutions can deploy AI securely and responsibly at scale. We are proud to support that ambition with OpenAI models, tools and UAE-based inference, helping the bank meet regulatory requirements. We look forward to deepening our partnership to boost productivity, drive innovation and deliver better customer experiences.”

The agreement adds Emirates NBD to OpenAI's enterprise banking collaborations, with the UAE-based inference arrangement intended to support the bank's adoption of GPT models across customer-facing services and internal operations.