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Google Launches Arabic Version Of AI Chat Tool Bard
The generative AI platform can understand 16 dialects, including Saudi, Egyptian, and Emirati.
Alphabet, the company in charge of Google’s extensive suite of products, has launched an Arabic version of its artificial intelligence platform, Bard. The tool now contains updates to address Arabic speakers’ unique needs amid the search giant’s increasing rivalry with Microsoft and its infamous ChatGPT platform.
The conversational AI tool can understand questions in 16 colloquial Arabic dialects, including Egyptian, Emirati, and Saudi. However, the AI chatbot will provide answers in classical Arabic, Google execs explained at a Dubai press briefing.
“Bard will be available in the Arabic language across all corners of the Arab world as part of its global launch in 40 other languages,” announced Najeeb Jarrar, regional director of marketing for Google MENA.
Bard in Arabic now features a user interface supporting the language’s right-to-left script. At the same time, users can also input questions in several languages simultaneously, helping both bilingual speakers and novice language students.
“A big team of Google’s engineers and linguist experts worked together over the last months so that the product, Bard, will not just be a translation […] but a product that matches our use in the Arabic language,” said Marwa Khost, Google’s communications manager for MENA.
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When asked whether the relatively limited volume of Arabic online content would affect the depth of Bard’s responses, Google explained that the AI platform could source material from the wider online landscape and translate it into a user’s preferred language. The search company’s execs also noted that the amount of Arabic content had grown and diversified exponentially in recent years.
The launch of Bard in Arabic comes as the AI tool is rolled out across 59 new regions and countries, including Brazil and most of Europe. The latest expansion means Bard is available in 46 languages and 239 countries and territories.
News
Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power
Egypt’s telecom regulator says $57.6 billion moved through more than 57 million wallets in six months. And one operator handled 77% of the value.
Egypt’s mobile wallets handled EGP 2.96 trillion ($57.6 billion) in transactions in the first half of 2026, according to the National Telecom Regulatory Authority – a 56% rise on the EGP 1.90 trillion ($36.9 billion) recorded a year earlier. Transactions grew faster still, up 62% to 2.22 billion, while registered wallets climbed 23% to 57.01 million.
On one reading, that is exactly what Egypt’s regulators have been pushing for: a payments system that runs through telecom-linked wallets rather than banknotes. But the same data shows how far cash still reaches into it. Cash withdrawals made up just 12% of the transactions taking money out of wallets, yet 75% of the value withdrawn or spent.
Money arrives mostly from bank accounts: transfers through InstaPay accounted for 78% of deposit transactions and 58% of the value deposited, while incoming remittances from abroad made up 3% of deposit transactions but 10% of their value. Once inside, it largely moves between wallets – wallet-to-wallet transfers accounted for 54% of all transactions and 67% of total value, with mobile and internet top-ups a distant second at 25% of volume. In effect, the wallet is serving as a transfer layer: the place money passes through between the bank account and the banknote.
That layer also runs predominantly through one operator. Vodafone Cash held 53% of registered wallets and 57% of active ones, but handled 69% of transactions and 77% of their value. Its nearest rival, e& money, held 23% of registered wallets but 14% of transaction value; Orange Cash 20% and 8%; WE Pay 4% of wallets. How many of the 57.01 million are active is not stated.
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Adoption is rather uneven in other respects. Men held 38 million wallets, or 67% of the total, against 19 million held by women. Users aged 26 to 45 accounted for half of all wallets, and Cairo alone had 10.6 million, or 19% of the national total, with Giza next at 6.5 million.
The NTRA says it is continuing to work with telecom operators on the regulatory framework for wallet services, part of a wider effort to expand electronic payments and financial inclusion. Its own figures show that effort succeeding on the way in. On the way out, three-quarters of the value still leaves as cash.
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