The Business of Innovation – Part 7 AI Strategy is About Platforms
These days, the prevailing conversation around AI focuses on user-level applications in day-to-day work. But the focus at AMCHAM’s MENA Regional Conference in Dubai last week was something quite different: the UAE as one of the most fertile environments globally for AI platform deployment.
The conference brought together stakeholders from AI technology, capital markets, government, construction, infrastructure, and intellectual property. The unifying theme was clear. Since the launch of the UAE National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031, the country has been methodically setting the stage to host AI not merely in terms of application software, but as comprehensive infrastructure.
The UAE’s AI Strategy Is About Platforms, Not Applications
The UAE National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031 was launched a few years ago by the Ministry of State for Artificial Intelligence. It sets out a clear and particularly comprehensive roadmap. Its eight stated objectives are not framed around applications or software alone, but around building a complete AI ecosystem:
- Objective 1: Build a global reputation as an AI destination
- Objective 2: Strengthen competitive assets in priority sectors through AI
- Objective 3: Develop a fertile, end-to-end AI ecosystem
- Objective 4: Embed AI across customer services and operations
- Objective 5: Attract and train talent for AI-enabled jobs
- Objective 6: Anchor world-leading research in target industries
- Objective 7: Provide the data and infrastructure needed to operate as a real-world AI test bed
- Objective 8: Ensure strong governance and effective regulation
[Strategy | Artificial Intelligence Office, UAE]
The UAE is particularly unique and attractive as a host for AI platforms because it has all the resources that are needed coupled with the ability to roll them out quickly and efficiently.
AI Is a Layered System, Not a Single Asset
Advanced AI is not a single piece of software. It is a deeply layered, continuously evolving system spanning energy, data centres, hardware, networks, models, deployment tooling, and real-world outputs.
Each layer introduces discrete technical challenges—and corresponding opportunities and needs for durable IP protection. In practice, some of the strongest and most enforceable IP arises not inside the model itself, but at the interfaces between layers, where systems integrate, scale, and interact with physical or regulated environments.
What the UAE is facilitating under its AI 2031 strategy is the full stack required to support this reality.
Where IP Value Is Being Created
In platform-based AI environments, protectable innovation commonly arises across:
- Energy: Power, cooling, and energy-optimized infrastructure
- Infrastructure: Data-centre architecture and fault-tolerant systems
- Technical layer: Hardware-software interaction and compute orchestration
- Data management: Networking, latency management, and secure data movement
- Operational layer: Deployment, monitoring, explainability, and safety tooling
- AI deliverables: domain-specific outputs embedded in real-world systems
A narrow focus on application software alone risks missing much of this value. A layered platform demands a layered IP strategy.
The Strategic Takeaway
The UAE is not positioning itself as a place to simply use AI. It is positioning itself as a place to build AI platforms at scale.
For organizations and joint ventures developing or deploying AI in the region, the implication is clear: IP protection must extend across the entire platform, not just the application layer.
*David Aylen is a Canadian IP lawyer now based in the UAE. While practicing in Canada, he was certified in 1998 as a Specialist in Patents-Trademarks-Copyright. He is also the holder of certificates in IP strategy and Patents from WIPO. He now serves as counsel to United Trademark & Patent Services
