The UAE has officially launched its first national facility to test, validate, and certify artificial intelligence systems. The UAE Cyber Security Council, in collaboration with global tech firm Cisco and AI solutions provider Open Innovation AI, established the National AI Test and Validation Lab to ensure AI models and applications meet high standards for security, safety, and trustworthiness. Local technology company Emircom joins the initiative as a strategic collaborator.
Quick Facts
- UAE’s first national AI test and validation lab.
- Serves government, critical infrastructure, and private sector.
- Issues national certification for compliant AI systems.
Building a Sovereign AI Assurance Layer
As government and industries across the UAE move from piloting to full-scale production of agentic AI, ensuring these systems are secure and trustworthy is no longer an option—it’s a critical necessity. The new lab, hosted in the Emirates and governed by the Cyber Security Council, provides a sovereign capability to validate AI models, agents, and applications at scale.
Already operational, the facility is designed to analyze tens to hundreds of thousands of AI agents annually. This provides the UAE with a verifiable assurance layer for its rapidly accelerating AI adoption, giving regulators, operators, and citizens confidence that deployed systems meet national security and compliance standards.
A Rigorous Six-Point Evaluation Framework
AI systems seeking certification will undergo a comprehensive assessment covering six key areas: model security, threat defence, data integrity, supply-chain security, agent autonomy, and regulatory compliance.
The threat defence testing specifically targets critical vulnerabilities that grow as AI systems become more autonomous, including sophisticated prompt-injection attacks and jailbreak attempts. AI systems that successfully pass the lab’s evaluations will receive a national certification mark.
Aligning with Global and National Standards
The lab’s testing protocols are designed to ensure compliance with both UAE national cybersecurity mandates and major international standards. This dual alignment includes frameworks such as ISO 42001, MITRE ATLAS, NIST AI RMF, and the OWASP standards for large language models and AI agents. This approach ensures that UAE-certified systems also hold broader credibility on the global stage.
The facility’s technical infrastructure combines Cisco’s AI-ready secure networking and high-performance NVIDIA GPU compute with Open Innovation AI’s software platform, which includes its Cluster Manager for orchestrating AI workloads and AI Security tools for red-teaming and automated testing.
About The National AI Test and Validation Lab
The National AI Test and Validation Lab is a UAE-based facility designed to test, validate, and certify AI models, agents, and applications. A collaboration between the UAE Cyber Security Council, Cisco, Open Innovation AI, and Emircom, the lab serves a broad range of sectors, including government entities, critical infrastructure operators, and private companies. It provides a national certification mark to AI systems that meet stringent security, safety, and trustworthiness standards.
Source: Middle East AI News
