Dubai is repositioning its flagship tech competition to reflect a broader industry shift: from building apps to building autonomous AI agents. The Create Apps Championship, now in its third edition, has been renamed the Create AI Agents Championship, with organizers betting that the emirate can become the first city to lead in this emerging field.
The announcement came on 7 October, when Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum revealed the rebranding during the awards ceremony for this year's winners. The stated ambition is unambiguous: to make Dubai the global reference point for AI agents—systems that do not merely respond to queries but execute tasks, make decisions, and operate with minimal human oversight.
From local contest to global platform
What began as a modest local competition in 2023 has grown into an international phenomenon. According to Saeed Al Gergawi, Vice President of the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, the championship has attracted 15,564 applications from 153 countries. This year alone, 9,754 entries were submitted—more than the first two editions combined. The contest has produced over 1,700 prototypes and more than 140 live applications, with guidance from more than 250 mentors worldwide.
The shift from apps to agents is a natural evolution, Al Gergawi explains. "Apps put services on the phone. Agents can use those services on the user's behalf." For participants, the appeal is clear. Rakesh Mavath, co-founder of Takeem, a winner from the first edition, says: "Agentic AI matters for one simple reason. It's ease of use of the consumer." He adds that much of the technology works behind the scenes: "We also use a lot of agentic AI in the backend to help with administration, content marketing, go-to-market, but that's the part that the public doesn't see."
The Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, one of three chambers under Dubai Chambers, runs the championship as part of a wider push to attract digital companies, talent, and investment. The new format is designed to accelerate the adoption of agentic AI across Dubai's business community.
Speed, youth, and global reach
Entrants are required to identify a real problem, build an AI agent to solve it, test its impact, and demonstrate its commercial viability. Al Gergawi emphasizes the inclusive nature of the contest: "We want to provide the platform for anyone with an idea, any business, to be able to be on the level field with the world." He adds, "Ultimately what we want to do is we want to be able to use agentic AI as tools to serve humanity and to serve global economies."
For smaller players, the promise is productivity. AI tools, Al Gergawi argues, allow startups to compete with large corporations. But the contest also stresses social impact. "What we're trying to do here that is unique is to ensure that all of the participants and anyone that applies does so to positively impact humanity as a whole, businesses, and society."
Speed is a key selling point. Dubai aims to compress what typically takes years into less than six months, allowing innovators to prove their concepts in the emirate and then deploy them in their home markets. "Dubai wants to become a platform for global innovators, anyone that has just an idea, to be able to test it and then be able to deploy it in their own markets, in their home geographies," says Al Gergawi.
There is no minimum age to enter, and no coding experience is required. Teenagers can compete alongside startups and established firms. Al Gergawi believes youth have an edge: "By being young and being able to move much faster." He adds, "Keeping an eye on tomorrow's economy, it's important to foster the right culture and to involve the youth early on."
The stakes are high. Each of the four category winners—covering societal, personal, business, and youth agents—receives around €128,000 (AED 550,000). One overall winner is named AI Agent of the Year, taking home approximately €232,000 (AED 1 million).
The first three editions asked participants to build an app. The next will test whether their agents can do the work themselves. As Dubai pushes forward, the contest is becoming a barometer for how quickly autonomous AI can move from concept to real-world application. For European observers, the development is worth watching, as similar competitions and regulatory frameworks are emerging across the continent, from AI agents discussed at the WTTC summit in Malta to broader EU initiatives on AI governance.
