The UAE is moving to formalize trust in artificial intelligence with the launch of the National AI Test and Validation Lab. The new facility is a collaboration between the UAE Cyber Security Council, US tech giant Cisco, and AI solutions provider Open Innovation AI, with support from local telecommunications company Emircom. This is the first facility of its kind in the country, designed to test, validate, and certify AI models and applications for security and safety before they are deployed at scale.
Quick Facts
- First national lab to certify AI systems.
- Led by the UAE Cyber Security Council.
- Serves government, critical infrastructure, and private sectors.
Building a Sovereign AI Assurance Layer
As government and industry sectors across the UAE accelerate their adoption of agentic AI, the question of trustworthiness becomes a critical infrastructure concern. The new lab provides a sovereign facility to validate AI models, agents, and apps, creating a verifiable assurance layer that few other nations currently possess.
Already operational, the lab is built to scale, with the capacity to analyze hundreds of thousands of AI agents annually. AI systems that successfully pass the rigorous evaluations will receive a national certification mark, giving regulators, operators, and the public clear confirmation that the technology meets UAE national security and compliance standards.
A Deep Dive into the Certification Process
The lab’s assessments are comprehensive, 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 in autonomous systems, including prompt-injection attacks and jailbreak attempts.
To ensure broad acceptance, the lab tests for compliance against both UAE national cybersecurity mandates and major international standards. These include ISO 42001, MITRE ATLAS, NIST AI RMF, and the OWASP frameworks for large language models and AI agents. This dual alignment positions UAE-certified systems for greater global credibility.
The Tech and Governance Powering the Lab
The facility’s technical infrastructure is powered by Cisco’s AI-ready secure networking and high-performance NVIDIA GPU compute. This is integrated 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.
Governed directly by the UAE Cyber Security Council, the lab’s operations are aligned with the UAE’s national AI, cloud, and critical infrastructure policies. It is set to serve a wide range of sectors, including federal and local government entities, critical national infrastructure operators, financial services, healthcare, energy, and telecommunications. UAE-based AI developers can also use the facility to seek national certification before bringing their products to market.
About The National AI Test and Validation Lab
The National AI Test and Validation Lab is a first-of-its-kind facility in the UAE established by the Cyber Security Council, Cisco, and Open Innovation AI. Its primary mission is to test, validate, and certify AI models, agents, and applications to ensure they meet national standards for security, safety, and trustworthiness. The lab serves both public and private sector entities deploying AI at scale.
Source: Middle East AI News
