Egypt Aims for AI Leadership in the Middle East and Africa with New National Strategy

Egypt has unveiled the Second Edition of its National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy for 2025-2030, building on the initial strategy launched in 2021. The new plan aims to establish Egypt as a regional leader in AI and an influential global player. The core focus is to leverage AI to drive social and economic development, create a digital society, and improve the quality of life for all citizens.

The strategy’s overarching vision, “Inclusive AI to foster Digital Egypt,” seeks to promote development for all Egyptians. Its mission is to “Create an AI industry supported by governance, technology, data, infrastructure, ecosystem, and talents, to ensure its sustainability and competitiveness for purposes of promoting Egypt’s development.” The document outlines six strategic objectives: establishing an ethical and responsible AI framework, enhancing quality of life through AI, ensuring data accessibility and sharing, building robust AI infrastructure, fostering a healthy AI ecosystem, and developing local AI talent.

The strategy sets specific goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) to be achieved by 2030. The ICT sector is projected to contribute 7.7% to Egypt’s GDP. It is anticipated that AI tools will benefit 26% of the workforce, and 36% of the general public will have access to AI-powered products in their daily lives within the next five years. The plan also aims to increase the number of AI professionals to 30,000 and double the annual number of AI academic publications to 6,000. Furthermore, the strategy intends to support the establishment of over 250 successful AI companies in Egypt.

To achieve these goals, the strategy is built on six foundational pillars. The Governance pillar focuses on creating a regulatory system, including an AI law and a Center for Responsible AI. The Technology pillar aims to develop a national foundational model and leverage large language models for various industries. The Data pillar, recognized as the “fuel of AI algorithms,” involves a comprehensive data strategy and open data platforms. The ICT and AI Infrastructure pillar is dedicated to building scalable infrastructure, including advanced data centers and cloud services. The Ecosystem pillar supports the AI industry through an active investment environment and collaboration platforms. Finally, the Talents pillar focuses on developing and attracting AI experts through various initiatives.

The strategy acknowledges the rapid evolution of AI, particularly the emergence of large models and generative AI, and recognizes that being competitive in this field is crucial for Egypt’s national ambitions. The implementation roadmap emphasizes the importance of “strategic AI funding” to support these advancements. The document highlights Egypt’s progress, noting its ranking of 52nd on Tortoise Media’s Global AI Index 2024 and a significant jump of 49 spots on the Government AI Readiness Index from 2019 to 2023.