In Conversation with HE Raja Al Mazrouei

Good morning everyone. Thank you no. Thank you to the Atlantic Council. Thank you. It's my honor and my pleasure to be here.

Congratulation your excellency.

Thank you.

Every time we are proud to see women u more and more successful. Your Excellency, you're one of the key leaders shaping the UAE's AI powered economic transformation and I'm excited to dive into your mission, your work, and the recognition you're receiving today. You are receiving a major award today. What does this recognition mean to you at this moment of a rapid AI and economic transformation?

Thank you everyone for your support. forums like this keeps us excited and keeps us really committed to this journey because without the support of each other we won't really know what lies ahead behind and uh without the support of the uh community I would not have been able to get where I am today and I'm really really really excited I've received so many awards but it really means a lot when it comes from the industry it comes from people who've witnessed your work and realized that the impact that you're doing and that keeps you uh moving and um really excited about working more. So uh thank you so much with regards to technology. I mean we all know how technology has been uh shaping all sectors and all industries and has been disrupting all capital markets. uh the top 10 companies around the world today are uh tech uh companies and the um leadership for AI is a position that everyone is looking at.

uh the UAE has been uh really ahead of the whole region and and and really visionary in its uh understanding of how these technologies work, how do they impact our world and how can we benefit from them. And as leaders, we really need to understand these technologies. Not just what they are, what they are, how they are, how can we use them, how can we benefit from them, how do we protect our data, how do we protect our community, and how do we create an environment for this technology to benefit everyone else. There is a lot of um uh implementation opportunities for these technologies to to benefit specifically in creating impact and inclusive opportunities for uh a bigger community to contribute to the economy. But we really need to implement it in the right way.

Yes. So true. Many countries fear the future of AI. Why does the UAE choose to shape it instead of fear it? many countries they they fear the the the the future of AI.

So why does the UAE choose to shape it instead of fear it?

So the UAE has been always ahead uh in terms of understanding what is happening and um we all know how the UAE has created an environment for us to experiment. uh coming personally from creating the fintech ecosystem in the whole region back in 2017. At that time there were not even regulations. So uh with a mindset of a leadership that says if there's no regulation let's create it rather than saying there's no regulation. We don't know how to do it.

Let's not deal with it. It's really experiment with it. Test it. See if there is any good potential out of this. and then we take informed decisions based on information and real uh use case scenarios.

Today the the the whole region is really has an opportunity to be at a leadership uh position when it comes to uh artificial intelligence whether it's investing in data centers whether it's uh understanding the supply chain of rare minerals and critical minerals that supply and enable all of these AI data centers which will be required for the future and looking at the UAE we're investing in the infrastructure we're investing in uh developing the technology and really deploying the technology for the benefit of all.

You're leading Jiad credit insurance. Uh what are the most important AIdriven transformation? You were talking now about a lot of them you are implementing to strengthen the economic resilience. So with regards to Tahadi credit insurance just uh for the benefit of the audience it's the export credit agency of the United Arab Emirates and our role is really to protect international trade of UAE exporters enable them access international markets and secure all of these uh transactions. Now when you are operating in a um a global uh landscape there is a lot of risks that are going around whether it's a geopolitical risk whether it's a currency related risk whether it's a default of a buyer a bankruptcy a pandemic whatever and as a trader you really or an exporter or someone who wants really to focus on uh trade you don't want to deal with all of these uh risks and this is why export credit agencies were created around the world to enable exporters or companies access global markets.

When it comes to credit insurance, we have implemented a technology that reads uh data from 10 different data sources and gives us access to more than 400 million records of buyers around the world. So we are able to leverage on AI technology to do the predictive assessment of these uh buyers their probabilities of defaults looking at the um uh geographic locations the uh situations that might happen in terms of catastrophes or whatever that will affect trade. So having access to all of that information, it's big data, it's dynamic, it's timely, enables us to uh assess the risks in a very um meticulous way to enable uh those uh traders to access those markets.

Uh also you support the UEE companies andmemes to grow with confidence in global trade. So how are you integrating predictive intelligence and digital tools to empower them? So what we have done at ACI because we realize that u anywhere globally uhmemes contribute the majority to any economy butmemes remain a risky uh segment and a segment that really struggles in terms of accessing uh finance at least to uh finance their working capital requirements and all of these uh information when it comes tomemes and um uh in trade what we have done is we really uh built some intuitive tools on our website to enable them to understand the import potential from uh the target uh countries that they are looking at. So for example, I want to I I am producing these glasses and I want to export where do I go? So I look at which countries have it, which buyers are available and how can I uh reach them?

And with building all of these tools, we enable our clients to access the markets, find the right opportunities of these um requirements and also secure their transaction along the way.

You often emphasize responsible AI, innovation with trust. How are you building that culture inside the institution lead?

Responsible AI is very important. I don't think that there is a single standard implementation of it. However, it is um it is uh a key component of any uh strategy for any implementation because as we see today, you know, with the deep fake and the fraud scenarios that can happen on on AI, you you really expose yourself to unprotected environment. And I believe that the role of governments and regulators is really to enforce and embed all of these uh regulations of AI before implementing them because once we're dealing with a constantly and uh quickly developing technology as we speak there are modules that are being developed not enough testing. There's a lot of excitement and everybody uses charge GBT.

Do you know how much Chad GBT has in terms of information about you and your kids and your family and your travel plans and your meal preferences? But we like the technology, but we can't trust it. So, it's really important to build that trust and governance uh for AI to make sure that we protect our uh data, we protect our clients, and we are able to benefit from the value that this technology brings to the table. If you look ahead five years, what is the UAE's biggest opportunity in an AIdriven global economy?

I don't think I need to look five years. It's already very clear. Alhamdulillah, the UAE is leading in terms of either building the the the data center, the infrastructure to operate the AI, making sure that we have access to uh the uh supply requirements for setting up all of these uh AIS. There is a lot of uh regulation that is being developed as we speak and a lot of regulations are being discussed at forums like this where it's a two-way uh conversation. The regulators engage with the community understand what is going and what are the pressures that are uh they are facing in terms of translating those challenges into uh working opportunities.

So I believe the the UAE has a great opportunity of being a hub for AI in terms of infrastructure, in terms of development, in terms of talent and also in terms of connectivity between the world. Today the UAE has a great infrastructure in terms of logistics. If we look at trade in particular, you have logistics, you have uh proximity, you have comprehensive economic agreements that the UAE have signed with more than 28 countries globally, strong G2G relationships. UAE is the biggest investor in the African continent. So there is a lot of potential that positions the UAE as a leader in AI whether it comes to infrastructure development and talent.

So we will not wait the five years. You're one of the leading Emirati women shaping the future of finance, trade and AI. How do you see the role of women evolving in these sectors and what more can we do to open doors for the next generation?

We need to do more of these forums. I think um with regards to the UAE in particular, we have an excellent representation of women across sectors, whether it's in leadership positions, whether as ministers, members of the cabinet and within corporates in public, private and and government and but it's not enough. We need more women to be there and I believe with uh the support of u u institutions like ADGM and other uh entities in Atlantic Council bringing this uh talent over here to open this conversation and open this dialogue. We are sharing our experiences with the audience and we are inspiring more women to join the journey. The journey might be bumpy but what other way do we have?

We have to go through it and figure out what's the best outcome and never ever give up.

Yeah. Never give up in life. What message would you give to the next generation of Emirates innovators and even not emirate innovators who will shape the UAE's future?

I will say that the UAE has created a platform. It has created an opportunity for so many people to take an advantage of today. Uh if I look back in 2017 when we launched the fintech hive in the DIC, we didn't have a single startup in the DIC and today there's more than a thousand startups in the DIC. So today these startups came from all over the world and for us we're here as immiratis or as residents in the UAE. The accelerators are there, the funds are there, the regulators are there, the forums are there and we're very proud of solutions and technologies and products that are made in the UAE.

So we have a huge support that is available for everyone and we see companies come from all over the world to benefit from it. So why don't we take the lead and you know work together to make something very very specific from Abu Dhabi

being at Harvard also leading uh what's what what do you what's your word to everyone everyone now wants to study to go and do any new uh small uh small uh AI uh courses and uh to to understand more AI and others. So now what do you say to anyone who wants to study and understand more AI? Which course what do you suggest? What do you tell them? And even the new generation who doesn't know and who are lost what to do.

So we can't ignore the fact that the world continues to evolve and we need to evolve as well when it comes to artificial intelligence. So I personally joined the Muhammad bin Zed University for artificial intelligence and I did the first executive education in AI but I thought that was not enough for me and then I did the uh Harvard Business School uh artificial intelligence course again there was more to AI that I wanted to understand and then I did the Berkeley program for the AI and each program gave me a different view of AI and end of January I'm stand starting the Oxford school for AI. So there is a lot to learn and it really depends on your capacity and your passion and how much impact you want to create. You really need to cover all uh aspects. I realized that I've done the uh machine learning understanding the technology the um use cases implementation in in AI and I went and I met the VCs that invest in AI.

I visited Nvidia and others but I didn't do the governance part. So that's what I'm doing now. So it's really important to continue upgrading yourself and your uh learning stack in terms of technology and what's happening if you want to remain in that uh industry and I think it also comes from a personal passion more than an obligation because you really have to like what you do to to be there and um I would like just to mention a quote of um the director of the world trade organization Dr. Go and she said there is no right way to be a woman leader just be yourself and I love that.

Thank you so much. It's so inspiring and yes everyone should be himself or herself. Thank you. Congratulation again and thank you for ADGM and the Abu Dhabi Financial Week for this opportunity and again thank you your excellencies. Thank you to the national so much.

Thank you council and thank you.