Dubai adopts cognitive computing as part of Smart Government initiative

The international technology giant IBM will provide its cognitive computing system, known as “Watson,” to Dubai’s Smart Government initiative.

The technology will be provided to both the Dubai Smart Government Department (DSG) and the Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED) with the goal of transforming government services with smart technology.

The governmental agencies showed off IBM's Watson at a recent press conference on the final day of Dubai’s GITEX Technology Week. Watson works as something of a supercharged search engine that, initially, will allow DED users to get advanced search results for inquiries related to DED services.

The Watson system is set apart by its ability to collect data from all sources. That includes everything from research reports to posts on various social media. It then analyzes, processes, organizes and classifies the results for the user within a few seconds.

Watson’s cognitive computing system lets users make their requests more easily understood on government websites, meaning that anyone with questions for the Dubai government will get detailed answers from Watson.

Ahmad Bin Humaidan, director general of Dubai Smart Government, said adopting the Watson technology will help Dubai build an innovative set of governmental services.

“We will apply best practices and provide modern and smart tools to enable government entities to transition to a smart government," Bin Humaidan said.