Sheikh Hamdan announces new AI Agents Championship as the emirate accelerates its drive to incubate tech talent and commercialise digital ventures.
DUBAI, Oct. 7, 2026 :Dubai on Wednesday honoured the winners of the third Create Apps Championship, capping a cycle that drew 9,754 submissions from 153 countries as the emirate tightens its grip on global digital entrepreneurship.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum presented the awards during a ceremony held at Emirates Towers Boulevard, celebrating developers whose working concepts emerged from an international pool of competitors.
Organised by the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy under the umbrella of the “Create Apps in Dubai” initiative, the competition acts as a direct feeder system to transform software concepts into viable, market-ready businesses. Over its three editions, the championship has logged 15,564 applications worldwide, fostered the creation of more than 1,700 functional prototypes, and enabled the rollout of over 140 commercial applications.
Highlighting the milestone, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Defence of the UAE, reaffirmed the emirate’s strategy to serve as an operational launchpad for high-growth tech ventures.
“Ideas and talent from around the world have come together in Dubai, where innovators can access the support and investment needed to turn their ideas into impact,” Sheikh Hamdan said. He noted that the cumulative rollout of more than 140 applications across critical and future-focused sectors reflects Dubai’s emphasis on concrete commercialisation rather than speculative development.
Building directly on that momentum, Dubai authorities unveiled the AI Agents Championship. The new contest shifts immediate focus toward autonomous artificial intelligence systems, tasking developers with building automated, intelligent tools capable of streamlining enterprise workflows and public services.
Sheikh Hamdan pointed to the new contest as a step toward making institutional services faster, simpler, and more efficient, inviting global coders and engineers to deploy solutions directly out of Dubai.
The twin initiatives anchor Dubai’s wider digital economy roadmap, which seeks to triple the contribution of digital industries to the local GDP. By matching seed-stage coders with local venture funds, accelerators, and regulatory sandboxes, the emirate aims to cement its status as the regional capital for enterprise software, consumer apps, and autonomous AI infrastructure.
