Egypt President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi unveiled the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2025–2030, reinforcing the country’s dedication to harnessing AI for economic growth, technological advancement, and improved quality of life. The strategy aspires to position Egypt as a premier AI hub within the MENA (Middle East & North Africa) region.
A key objective of the plan is to increase the ICT sector’s contribution to GDP to 7.7% by 2030. It is structured around six fundamental pillars: **governance, infrastructure, technology, data, ecosystem, and talent development**. Additionally, the roadmap sets ambitious goals, including the creation of over 250 AI-driven companies and the development of a 30,000-strong AI-skilled workforce by 2030.
SO WHAT?– The 2025–2030 National AI Strategy is an evolution of the initial strategy introduced by President El-Sisi in 2021, marking the commencement of the second phase of the original plan that began in 2020. Although phase two was initially set to start in 2022, the rise of ChatGPT and the rapid development of Generative AI led to a shift, pushing the start date to 2025. Central to the new strategy is the promotion of **inclusive AI** to support Egypt’s **Digital Egypt** initiative, aiming to provide benefits to all Egyptians. Additionally, a focus is placed on creating a **national foundational AI model**, which would serve as the foundation for developing and deploying GenAI solutions across both the public and private sectors. With countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE having already established national models, Egypt’s model could serve as a pivotal moment for advancing the country’s AI l
Below are the key highlights of Egypt’s National AI Strategy for 2025–2030:
- Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi unveiled the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2025–2030 on Wednesday.
- The 80-page national strategy aims to increase the ICT sector’s contribution to Egypt’s GDP to 7.7% by 2030, foster the creation of over 250 AI startups, and cultivate a workforce of 30,000 AI professionals.
- The updated strategy is centered around six key pillars: Governance, ICT and AI infrastructure, Technology, Data, Ecosystem, and Talent.
- The core vision of the 2025-2030 strategy emphasizes two main objectives: 1) promoting inclusive AI to support the Digital Egypt initiative, which aims for social and economic progress that benefits all Egyptians, and 2) developing a national foundational model to serve as a foundation for driving industry growth and fostering regional collaboration.
- Egypt plans to create a comprehensive national Arabic language model capable of performing tasks like language translation, sentiment analysis, and content generation with enhanced accuracy and efficiency, specifically tailored for the Arabic language.
- The national large language model (LLM) will be utilized to create domain-specific LLMs for critical industries like agriculture, healthcare, and law, aiming to support emerging digital sectors and enhance overall efficiency.
- The strategy highlights the importance of ethical AI usage, supported by a robust regulatory framework outlined in the Egyptian Charter for Responsible AI, which was released in 2023.
- The strategy includes plans to support AI startups and research and development through targeted grants, funding, and international partnerships.
- It also focuses on strengthening infrastructure with advanced data centers, extensive 5G connectivity, and eco-friendly computing facilities.
Egypt has been advancing its national artificial intelligence initiatives since 2017. Notable milestones include the creation of the National Council for Artificial Intelligence in 2019, the introduction of the first comprehensive National AI Strategy by President El-Sisi in 2021, and the establishment of the Applied Innovation Center. The initial strategy focused on utilizing AI for economic and social development, structured around four key areas: AI for Government, AI for Development, AI for Human Capacity Building, and AI for External Relations. As a result, Egypt made significant progress, climbing 49 places on the Government AI Readiness Index by Oxford Insights, moving from 111th place in 2019 to 62nd in 2023.