During the inaugural edition of Dubai AI Week, Dubai Finance (DOF) launched ASCEND, the world’s first AI-powered compliance verification platform for public finance.
The announcement of ASCEND was made by Abdulrahman Saleh Al Saleh, director general of Dubai Finance, who stated that the AI-Assisted System for Compliance Verification and Recommendations is a cornerstone of DOF’s AI strategy, designed to enhance operational efficiency and elevate financial governance standards.
“By embedding AI into our governance model, we are not only reinforcing accountability and agility but also strengthening Dubai’s global leadership in digital government,” Al Saleh said.
Platform to address key challenges in compliance verification
Huda Hamdan Al Shaikh, executive director of the corporate services sector and CEO of AI at Dubai Finance, explained that ASCEND addresses challenges in compliance verification, such as fragmented data and manual assessments.
“This platform introduces AI-led governance that replaces labour-intensive reviews with autonomous, real-time assessments,” she said.
Dubai Finance’s ASCEND uses open-source large language models (LLMs) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to interpret legal texts, analyze financial procedures and verify compliance. It also performs gap analysis, detects risks, maps KPIs against legal frameworks and generates bilingual, structured compliance reports.
For her part, Fatma Buti Alsuwaidi, director of the strategy and corporate performance division, highlighted ASCEND’s ability to issue actionable recommendations and ensure the alignment of KPIs with regulatory standards.
ASCEND is hosted on UAE-based cloud infrastructure, ensuring compliance with national Information Security Regulation standards and data sovereignty requirements. The platform’s unveiling at Dubai AI Week underscored Dubai’s leadership in public sector AI innovation and sets a new global benchmark for AI-driven financial governance.
UAE seeks greater AI adoption in public sector
The UAE has been a frontrunner in adopting AI to enhance the public sector’s operations and efficiency. Earlier this month, the nation’s cabinet approved the development of legislative mechanisms by establishing a Legislative Intelligence Office within the cabinet. The Legislative Intelligence Office will develop an integrated legislative map for all federal and local legislation in the UAE and link it via artificial intelligence to all judicial rulings, executive procedures and services provided to the public.
“AI is no longer just a tool – it is the infrastructure for cities that think, services that adapt, and governments that anticipate. In this new era of progress, AI will shape Dubai’s future,” stated His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), ahead of Dubai AI Week’s launch.
H.H. Sheikh Hamdan emphasised that the future will be defined by how well governments, institutions and societies integrate AI into their core strategies, particularly across public services, education and the economy.
He added: “We will begin by assessing government entities based on their AI integration and measuring the academic sector by its contributions to AI research and teaching. We will also celebrate the companies advancing Dubai’s AI economy. This is Dubai’s new standard – those who do not embrace AI today will fall behind.”
