G42 and Microsoft Deepen AI Partnership With New Agent-Sharing Tool for Gulf Governments

Abu Dhabi-based G42 and Microsoft have entered a new phase of their long-running artificial intelligence partnership, announcing an integration that allows AI "agents" built on either company's platform to work interchangeably across both. The move, unveiled in early-to-mid July 2026, is aimed at governments and large enterprises in the Gulf that are increasingly deploying autonomous AI systems but struggling to manage them across different software environments.

An AI agent, in this context, refers to a software program that can carry out multi-step tasks on its own, such as drafting documents, analyzing data or coordinating workflows, rather than simply responding to a single query. As organizations adopt more of these agents, keeping track of who built them, where they run and how they access sensitive data has become a growing challenge, one that this partnership is explicitly designed to address.

How the Integration Works

At the center of the announcement is a link between Catalyst, a platform built by G42's Inception42 unit, and Microsoft Copilot, the company's AI assistant embedded across its productivity software. The integration is designed to work in both directions: agents developed inside Catalyst will become accessible directly through Microsoft 365 Copilot, while agents originally built within Copilot will be able to operate natively inside Catalyst.

This two-way arrangement is meant to spare organizations from having to choose a single AI ecosystem or duplicate their work across separate platforms. Ashish Koshy, chief executive of Inception42, framed the announcement in terms of pace of demand, saying that "demand for agents is moving faster than any single platform can meet on its own."

Data Sovereignty at the Core

A central feature of the new system is its emphasis on data sovereignty, the principle that a country's sensitive information should be stored and processed within its own borders and under its own legal authority. According to the companies, the combined Inception42-Microsoft platform can run on-premises, within sovereign cloud environments, or on public cloud infrastructure, but in all cases it is designed to ensure that data tied to government and enterprise operations is processed inside the UAE.

This focus reflects a broader push by G42, which has positioned itself as central to the UAE's sovereign AI strategy. Earlier this year, the company introduced an operating model that allows other states to deploy sovereign AI systems securely and at scale, giving governments what the company describes as full control over their own data and systems. The Microsoft integration extends that approach into the realm of agentic AI specifically.

Part of a Larger National AI Push

The Catalyst-Copilot integration is not a standalone initiative but is tied directly to the UAE's national agentic AI strategy. That strategy sets a target of having AI support 50 percent of federal government operations within two years, a significant benchmark for a government seeking to position itself at the forefront of applied AI. Alongside that goal, the UAE has laid out plans to train 80,000 government workers, ranging from ministers down to junior staff, in how to use AI agents effectively.

The partnership also builds on a much larger financial commitment. It follows Microsoft's $15.2 billion investment in AI infrastructure in the UAE in 2024, a deal that first cemented the strategic ties between the two companies. That earlier agreement focused heavily on data-center capacity and sovereign cloud infrastructure, laying the groundwork for the kind of agent-level integration now being announced.

Addressing Fragmentation and Governance

Beyond the UAE's domestic goals, the companies frame the collaboration as a response to a wider problem facing governments and businesses as they scale up AI adoption: fragmented deployments across incompatible systems, and the governance and security risks that come with them. By offering a unified platform for building, deploying and overseeing AI agents across both sovereign and public cloud settings, G42 and Microsoft are positioning their joint offering as a template for how large, security-conscious organizations can adopt agentic AI without losing control over sensitive data.

Taken together, the announcement represents another step in the UAE's broader strategy of using partnerships with major US technology firms, alongside heavy investment in domestic AI infrastructure, to establish itself as a global hub for artificial intelligence.