Nextgen, a UK-founded AI transformation firm, has moved its global headquarters to the United Arab Emirates, placing the company under the policy environment shaped by the UAE Artificial Intelligence Office and inside one of the fastest-growing markets for enterprise AI adoption.
The institutional momentum behind the move is measurable. Research by Strand Partners, developed in collaboration with the UAE Artificial Intelligence Office and Amazon Web Services, found that 72% of UAE businesses have adopted AI, up from 53% a year earlier, roughly 36% year-on-year growth. Among businesses already using the technology, 85% reported that AI has accelerated their transformation, while 31% use its most advanced applications.
The company framed its decision in terms of the direction set by the country’s leadership. “Under the clear vision of its leadership, the UAE has built one of the world’s most compelling environments for AI, with a focus that sets it apart: putting AI to work, not just developing it,” the statement said. “That is exactly where we work. We help organisations move AI into production and make sure their people have the skills to use it and benefit from it. Making the UAE our home places us at the heart of that ambition and gives us a base to build AI capability for the region and beyond.”
Founded in 2012, Nextgen brings together more than 75 specialists across five offices and serves over 50 enterprise clients. The firm reports 200 AI use cases already in production. It works with governments and enterprises in complex and highly regulated sectors, the kind of environment where questions of compliance and implementation carry particular weight.
Meanwhile, the company’s footprint has widened considerably since its establishment, expanding from the UK into India and China and building experience across Europe and Asia. Its move to the UAE, the firm says, reflects the country’s long-standing role as a bridge between East and West, and between North and South. From its new base, Nextgen intends to apply that cross-market experience to building AI capability in the UAE and beyond.
On the delivery side, the firm works across a growing ecosystem of global AI models and enterprise platforms, allowing its teams to select technology according to each business’s requirements, use case, and infrastructure environment. Its approach combines strategy, transformation, and engineering with the technology required to move AI from experimentation into production, an orientation Nextgen argues helps enterprises stay relevant and become AI-native.
For a company whose stated focus is turning AI from pilot projects into working systems, the choice of headquarters underscores where it sees demand and policy support converging. The UAE’s adoption figures, and the involvement of the Artificial Intelligence Office in commissioning the research behind them, point to an institutional commitment that Nextgen is now positioning itself to serve from within the region. Whether that positioning translates into deeper work with government clients remains the open question.