The United Arab Emirates is entering a significant new phase in its digital transformation journey with the introduction of an AI-powered business registration system. This initiative is the result of a collaboration between Mastercard, IFZA, and Global Tax Assistant, three organizations that bring distinct strengths to a common goal: enabling small and medium-sized enterprises to set up operations faster, more efficiently, and with fewer obstacles.
This launch represents one of the first digital, AI-driven business registration pilots in the region. It is closely aligned with the UAE’s broader vision to become a global hub for entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustainable economic growth. By merging technology with streamlined regulatory processes, the collaboration sets out to support the country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and strengthen its position in the Global Entrepreneurship Index rankings by 2031.
The Strategic Importance of SMEs in the UAE
Small and medium-sized enterprises are a vital force in the UAE’s economy. They account for more than 94 percent of all businesses in the country and contribute over half of its GDP. Beyond their economic footprint, SMEs are essential drivers of job creation, innovation, and diversification. They operate across sectors ranging from technology and tourism to manufacturing and trade, helping to reduce dependency on oil revenues and positioning the UAE as a more balanced, resilient economy.
Recognizing their importance, the UAE’s National Agenda for Entrepreneurship and SMEs sets ambitious targets. These include establishing the nation as one of the top three countries in the Global Entrepreneurship Index by the next decade. Achieving such a goal requires not just policy support, but also tools and infrastructure that lower barriers to entry for new businesses.
IFZA’s Role in the Collaboration
The International Free Zone Authority (IFZA) has grown rapidly to become one of Dubai’s leading free zone communities. Home to startups and companies from more than 160 countries, it offers world-class infrastructure, advanced facilities, and a supportive regulatory environment. IFZA views SMEs not merely as participants in the economy, but as the prototypes of tomorrow’s global companies — enterprises that can drive exports, create new jobs, and pioneer fresh business models.
In this collaboration, IFZA’s role is central. It provides the regulatory framework and free zone environment in which the AI-driven business registration will take place. By pairing its streamlined processes with advanced automation, IFZA aims to equip entrepreneurs with a faster, more accessible path to launching their ventures.
Mastercard’s Commitment to Digital Inclusion
Mastercard brings its global expertise in digital payments, financial services, and commercial solutions to the partnership. The company has long been committed to expanding the digital economy to include as many people and businesses as possible. By 2024, it had connected 960 million individuals and 65 million micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises worldwide to digital tools and services.
Through this collaboration, Mastercard is offering additional benefits to its business card holders in the UAE. These include simplified and discounted access to the new digital business setup services, which will help reduce costs and administrative burdens for startups. This aligns with Mastercard’s regional strategy of supporting SME growth through partnerships, financial inclusion, and technology-led solutions.
Global Tax Assistant’s Expertise in Compliance and Advisory
Global Tax Assistant adds a critical dimension to the project with its expertise in compliance, advisory, and financial consultancy. With over a decade of experience and a client base exceeding 350 across the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, and Qatar, the firm delivers accounting, legal, auditing, and tax services tailored to the needs of small businesses.
In this initiative, Global Tax Assistant will focus on ensuring that the digital registration process integrates seamlessly with compliance requirements. By combining automation with advisory support, it seeks to provide business owners with both the speed of digital services and the assurance of professional oversight. The firm also intends to explore how the underlying technology could be applied in other areas, including customer onboarding processes in the banking sector.
How the AI-Driven Registration Works
The new system transforms what has traditionally been a manual and often time-consuming process into a fully digital journey. From document submission to license issuance, every step is powered by artificial intelligence. Automation handles repetitive tasks such as form completion, document verification, and communication between applicants and authorities.
This approach reduces setup time for new businesses, cutting operational overhead for entrepreneurs and allowing them to focus on growth rather than bureaucracy. For regulators, the use of AI enhances efficiency, accuracy, and transparency, ensuring that applications are processed swiftly without compromising compliance standards.
Benefits for the UAE’s Economy
The introduction of this AI-powered registration system is expected to have far-reaching benefits. For entrepreneurs, it means quicker market entry, lower costs, and fewer administrative hurdles. For the government, it supports key objectives within the digital transformation agenda, contributing to the nation’s economic diversification strategy.
By digitizing the business setup process, the UAE also strengthens its appeal to international investors and entrepreneurs. The ability to register a company from anywhere in the world, without lengthy physical procedures, makes the country more competitive as a destination for global business.
Supporting the UAE’s Digital Transformation Goals
The UAE has placed digital transformation at the heart of its national strategy. From smart cities to e-government services, the focus has been on integrating technology into every sector to improve efficiency, sustainability, and quality of life.
The AI-driven business registration system supports this vision by replacing paper-heavy, manual processes with fast, secure, and scalable digital workflows. It is also an example of successful collaboration between the public and private sectors — a model the UAE has championed in many areas of development.
A Public-Private Partnership in Action
One of the distinguishing features of this initiative is the level of cooperation between different sectors. IFZA provides the regulatory framework and free zone infrastructure; Mastercard brings financial and technological expertise; Global Tax Assistant ensures compliance and advisory excellence. Together, they have created a system that leverages each partner’s strengths to deliver a better experience for entrepreneurs.
Such partnerships are increasingly recognized as essential for tackling complex challenges in business and governance. By pooling resources, knowledge, and networks, public and private entities can achieve outcomes that neither could deliver alone.
Enabling Sustainable Growth for SMEs
A faster, more efficient registration process not only makes life easier for entrepreneurs but also supports the long-term sustainability of SMEs. Reducing the cost and complexity of setup allows more businesses to enter the market, increasing competition, innovation, and consumer choice.
Once established, SMEs can take advantage of other digital tools and services to manage operations, reach customers, and expand internationally. The partnership between Mastercard, IFZA, and Global Tax Assistant ensures that these businesses begin their journey with a solid foundation in both technology and compliance.
Expanding Regional Opportunities
The collaboration is designed not only to serve the UAE but also to create opportunities for expansion into Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. By providing a fast and reliable setup process, entrepreneurs can use the UAE as a base to access markets across these regions.
This aligns with the UAE’s role as a bridge between East and West, offering connectivity, infrastructure, and a favorable business environment to companies aiming for regional and global growth.
Looking Ahead
The launch of the AI-powered business registration system marks an important milestone in the UAE’s journey toward becoming one of the world’s top entrepreneurial nations. With SMEs already forming the backbone of the economy, enabling them to start and scale faster will contribute to broader goals of innovation, diversification, and competitiveness.
As the system is rolled out and refined, lessons learned from its operation can inform future initiatives. The success of this project may also inspire similar collaborations in other sectors, where technology can be used to streamline processes and remove barriers to growth.
The UAE’s experience demonstrates how targeted partnerships, aligned with national priorities, can produce solutions that deliver tangible benefits to both businesses and the wider economy. For entrepreneurs in the UAE and beyond, the message is clear: the path to starting a business in one of the world’s most dynamic markets is becoming faster, smarter, and more accessible than ever before.
Shares of Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD slid by as much as 8% on Monday after it reported a drop in profit because of a price war in China’s car sector.
The carmaker had on Friday reported that its net profit fell to 6.4bn yuan ($900m; £660m) between April and June, down 30% from a year earlier.
BYD said in its filing that “increased price competition” among China’s EV brands had impacted the industry.
The Shenzhen-based manufacturer is facing an increasingly crowded market, competing against local rivals Nio and XPeng and US carmaker Tesla, which have all slashed prices to draw buyers.
The carmaker’s stock fell at the open in Hong Kong on Mondaybut recovered slightly throughout the day.
Competition in China’s car sector has reached a “fever pitch”, said BYD in its statement.
It said “industry malpractices… [like] excessive marketing” played a part in disrupting the market.
EV makers have subsidised car dealers and offered zero-interest loans to buyers as the industry becomes increasingly cutthroat.
It has prompted warnings from Beijing, which urged automakers to stop the aggressive discounts in order to protect the economy.
Average car prices in China have fallen by around 19% over the past two years, currently standing at around 165,000 yuan ($23,100; £17,100), according to industry estimates.
And despite significant sales abroad, BYD’s earnings fell short of analysts’ estimates for a modest increase.
The company targeted global sales of 5.5 million cars this year, but it has sold just 2.49 million by the end of July.
BYD’s “surprising” performance suggests that even the leader of China’s EV sector won’t necessarily win from a “cut-throat” price war, said industrial policy expert Laura Wu from Singapore.
“[The] drop in stock price trading this morning signals investor’s disappointment,” she said.
Beijing’s push to end the EV price war is tough, as past policies have led to too many players in the sector, said Prof Wu from Nanyang Technological University.
Price cuts may benefit consumers, but they risk creating an oversupply of Chinese EVs in the long run, she added.
BYD has grown to become the world’s largest EV maker, surpassing Tesla in annual revenue in 2024, thanks to the wide appeal of its hybrid vehicles in China, Asia and European markets.
On Friday, Alibaba reported a 2% rise in overall revenue to 247.65 billion Chinese yuan, or $34.6 billion, for the quarter ended June 30 — missing analysts’ forecasts of $252.92 billion yuan in revenue. Operating profit dropped 3% to 35 billion yuan.
Despite that drag, investors piled in.
Alibaba’s New York-listed shares closed 12.9% higher on Friday to $135 apiece, while its Hong Kong-listed stock gained as much as 18% Monday morning.
The rally was fueled by a triple-digit percentage gain in AI-related product revenue and Alibaba Cloud’s 26% year-over-year revenue surge to 33.4 billion yuan — beating analyst expectations for an 18% rise.
That performance underscores how investors are zeroing in on AI as Alibaba’s next growth engine.
“Our investments in AI have begun to yield tangible results,” said Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu on Friday’s earnings call.
“We’re seeing an increasingly clear path for AI to drive Alibaba’s robust growth,” Wu said.
Analysts are upbeat too.
“For Cloud, it maintains accelerating growth on rising AI adoption with enhanced modeling capabilities and strong inference/training demands,” wrote equity analysts at Jefferies on Friday.
That long-term upside explains why investors are looking past the bruising economics of food delivery.
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Quick commerce drags on profits
The cloud boom stands in sharp contrast to Alibaba’s costly delivery battles.
Alibaba’s China e-commerce business — which includes its traditional e-commerce and food delivery businesses — managed a 10% revenue growth from last year, to 140 billion yuan.
But, earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization fell 21% from a year ago amid heavy subsidies for food delivery and instant shopping.
That weakness reflected the heavy toll of Alibaba’s quick commerce push. It has been burning billions of yuan to compete with rivals Meituan — the market leader — and new entrant JD.com in food delivery and instant shopping.
Jiang Fan, Alibaba’s e-commerce chief, acknowledged on Friday’s call that the company has spent heavily to build up the quick commerce business, but said the losses will shrink as repeat customers drive efficiency.
Nomura analysts wrote on Monday that Alibaba’s quick commerce sector has scaled up enough for the company to “shift emphasis from land grabs to optimizing efficiency.”
Chelsey Tam, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, struck a similar note, arguing Alibaba is better positioned in the current food delivery battle.
“We believe Alibaba has leveraged its ecosystem resources far more effectively than in previous food delivery competitions, increasing its chances of gaining market share and achieving profitability in the medium term,” wrote Tam on Friday.
Alibaba’s stock is 59% higher in New York this year. Its Hong Kong-listed stock is up 65% over the same period.
Work efficiency and creative attempts to secure sustainable competitiveness
Hedges The site of global orders for the spring and summer season of 2026. [Picture = LF]
LF announced on the 1st that it held the first “2025 Generative AI Business Innovation Challenge” for executives and employees across the company to discover practical improvement ideas using generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology and expand them into pilot projects applicable to actual work.
This contest was an important opportunity to internalize the company-wide AI utilization capabilities and establish an innovative culture.
The contest was held in a way that freely suggested ideas using Generative AI in various jobs such as planning, design, production, sales, marketing, VMD, and CRM.
A total of 18 teams participated during the reception period, and various ideas specific to the fashion industry were submitted, such as deriving AI-based designs, generating virtual fitting images for models, and optimizing demand forecasts.
After document screening and concept verification steps, a total of 10 teams advanced to the finals and conducted pilot tests by applying actual AI tools.
At the final presentation held on the 28th, the best ideas were selected by comprehensively evaluating implementation completion, quantitative work effectiveness verification, technology and tool suitability, sustainability and scalability. Excellent ideas will be tested in actual work through a technology verification process.
At the awards ceremony held on the 28th of last month, three cases were selected as “best ideas,” including the development of an in-house data search system based on images and keywords, the advancement of video content production using AI, and the development of LF mall size error value filters.
“Development of an in-house data search system,” which won the grand prize (first place), is an idea that can check similar styles, past sales insights, and customer reviews in one click using images and keywords. Through this, it was highly evaluated for being able to speed up strategy establishment and maximize work efficiency when planning new products.
“Digital transformation is essential for brands to have sustainable competitiveness in a rapidly changing market environment,” said Kim Sang-kyun, CEO of LF. “Through this challenge, we will discover cases of creative digital innovation centered on the field and actively incorporate them into strengthening AI competitiveness and leading the fashion business.”
Meanwhile, LF is leading various digital innovations using Generative AI at the brand level as well. LF’s flagship brand Hedges is evolving its communication method with customers in three dimensions through innovative attempts such as releasing AI content and using AI models.
