Emirates NBD has allocated approximately 50% of its technology budget to artificial intelligence, highlighting the growing importance of AI in banking as adoption accelerates across Dubai’s financial sector.
Neeraj Makin, the bank’s Group Head of Strategy, Analytics and Venture Capital, told the Emirates News Agency that the allocation covered the past year and that the bank intended to maintain the approach next year.
The bank is developing more than 50 AI use cases, including applications for fraud prevention and customer service. A debt-collection trial also delivered a reported productivity improvement, providing an early example of how the technology is being assessed in operational work. Emirates News Agency
Emirates NBD makes AI a major technology spending priority
The allocation places AI at the centre of Emirates NBD’s technology investment programme.
Makin did not disclose an absolute spending figure in the reported remarks. The approximately 50% share refers specifically to the bank’s technology budget, rather than its total operating expenditure or overall investment budget.
The applications under development cover functions that directly affect customers and banking operations. Fraud prevention involves identifying potentially suspicious activity, while customer-service applications can support interactions and help staff access relevant information.
Developing more than 50 use cases does not mean all those projects have completed testing or reached full deployment. Their eventual impact will depend on how effectively they work within the bank’s systems and processes.
Debt-collection trial reports 15% productivity improvement
One example shared by Makin involved a trial covering 4,000 debt-collection accounts.
The accounts were divided equally between AI and employees, with 2,000 assigned to each group. The bank reported a 15% productivity improvement using AI.
The result provides a specific operational measure, but the account of the trial did not explain how productivity was calculated or disclose its duration.
It should therefore be understood as a reported improvement within that trial. It does not establish a 15% increase in collections, a matching reduction in costs or an equivalent productivity gain across the bank.
DFSA survey shows AI use has more than doubled since 2024
The wider financial sector is also expanding its use of AI.
The Dubai Financial Services Authority’s 2026 survey found that 71% of responding DFSA-authorised firms used at least one form of AI, compared with 52% in 2025 and 33% in 2024.
Generative AI adoption increased particularly sharply, reaching 67% of respondents in 2026.
| Measure | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Respondents using at least one form of AI | 33% | 52% | 71% |
| Respondents using generative AI | 22% | 48% | 67% |
These figures apply to survey respondents among DFSA-authorised firms, rather than every business registered in DIFC. THE INDEPENDENT REGULATOR OF FINANCIAL SERVICES
WAM’s account of remarks by DFSA Chief Executive Mark Steward cited roughly 70% overall adoption and 64% generative AI adoption. The regulator’s published survey gives the more specific figures of 71% and 67%, respectively; this article uses those published survey results.
Financial firms expect AI use to keep expanding
The DFSA survey also found that 84% of respondents expected their AI use to increase over the next three years, up from 75% in 2025.
Among respondents already using AI, 94% reported using generative AI. The technology has therefore become a common part of AI adoption among the surveyed firms.
The regulator said the findings also showed increased use of third-party applications and cloud infrastructure, developing governance arrangements and emerging activity involving AI agents. THE INDEPENDENT REGULATOR OF FINANCIAL SERVICES
Together, the findings suggest that financial institutions are moving beyond isolated experiments towards more extensive use across their businesses.
Emirates NBD expands its AI infrastructure partnerships
The spending commitment follows a separate enterprise collaboration announced by Emirates NBD and OpenAI on October 19.
Under that agreement, the bank said it would deploy OpenAI models using UAE-based inference infrastructure—the computing systems that run models and generate responses.
Planned applications include digital customer engagement, risk and compliance analytics, knowledge-intensive workflows and employee productivity. The bank also intends to connect the models with internal systems and enterprise data. emiratesnbd.com
That initiative provides additional context for the budget allocation: Emirates NBD is investing in both individual applications and the infrastructure needed to support wider adoption.
Governance and measurable results shape the next stage
As AI use expands, financial institutions face the practical task of demonstrating benefits while maintaining reliable operations and clear accountability.
The DFSA’s work includes examining frontier AI, agentic systems and cyber resilience. Its survey programme also helps the regulator understand how firms manage the risks associated with adoption.
For Emirates NBD, the next indicators of progress will be the applications that move into regular use and the measurable outcomes they deliver. The debt-collection trial offers one reported result; broader deployment will show how consistently similar benefits can be achieved across different banking functions.
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