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Dubai Turns AI On Its Own Civil Service To Measure Productivity
Five years and millions of data points in, a single framework now tracks how 32 government entities use their people and their money.
Governments have always been obsessed with what they spend. However, Dubai is now attempting to measure what it gets back.
The emirate has deployed a unified Workforce Productivity Measurement System across 32 government entities that’s built on machine learning and advanced artificial intelligence. Formally adopted as a government-wide framework under Executive Council Resolution No. 67 of 2025, it gives every participating department the same method for analyzing the relationship between human and financial resources, government outputs and service outcomes.
The Dubai Government Human Resources Department (DGHR) says the system took five years to develop and draws on millions of data points. Its analytical tools and digital platforms allow entities to monitor productivity indicators and assess how resources are being used, with the resulting data intended to sharpen planning, lift institutional performance and hand policymakers more accurate, forward-looking insight.
The rollout was gradual, with work beginning in 2020 with a pilot across a limited number of entities. Resolution No. 7 of 2023 created the Workforce Productivity Measurement Steering Committee to help develop the methodology and ready departments for wider adoption. With the system now government-wide, that committee has concluded its work.
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“The adoption of the Workforce Productivity Measurement System across the Government of Dubai represents a strategic milestone in the advancement of government work and reflects Dubai’s vision to build a government driven by data and advanced analytics,” says Abdullah Ali Bin Zayed Al Falasi, Director General of DGHR. He adds that the system goes beyond measurement, establishing a unified framework to support resource allocation, improve service quality and strengthen institutional performance.
What the announcement does not yet detail is how productivity is defined for a civil service, which indicators the models weigh, or whether measurement stops at the entity level or reaches individual employee desks.