Abu Dhabi has launched a multi-institution artificial intelligence ecosystem designed to accelerate agricultural innovation and help millions of farmers adapt to climate change, reinforcing the UAE’s ambition to lead in AI-driven climate solutions.
Developed in partnership with the Gates Foundation, the initiative builds on a US$200 million commitment announced at COP28 and focuses on translating research and data into real-world tools for climate-vulnerable farming communities. The platform aims to address growing challenges such as erratic weather, declining crop yields and limited access to forecasting infrastructure.
The launch event was attended by Mariam Almheiri, Head of the International Affairs Office at the UAE Presidential Court, and Bill Gates, who highlighted the urgency of equipping smallholder farmers with practical tools to manage climate risks.
The ecosystem brings together four interconnected programmes, including the CGIAR AI Hub, which applies advanced machine learning to decades of agricultural data to improve yield prediction and climate-resilient farming practices. The Institute for Agriculture and Artificial Intelligence at MBZUAI will focus on training, research and AI advisory services tailored to low-resource and developing regions.
A core innovation is AgriLLM, an open-source language model built specifically for agriculture and climate science, supporting areas such as soil health analysis, crop disease management and climate risk forecasting. The platform also includes AIM for Scale, a UAE–Gates Foundation initiative that expands AI-enabled weather forecasting services. In India alone, the programme reached approximately 38 million farmers in 2025, with further international deployments planned.
By bringing together institutions such as MBZUAI, NYU Abu Dhabi, ai71, CGIAR and the World Bank, the UAE aims to move beyond climate commitments toward scalable AI solutions with measurable global impact, strengthening food security and climate adaptation efforts worldwide.
