Dubai ranked among the world’s top three prime residential markets for capital appreciation in H1 2025, as values climbed more than 5 per cent, outpacing the global average, real estate consultancy Savills said in its latest index.

The gains were supported by rising immigration flows, steady investor confidence and limited luxury supply. Savills forecast prime values in Dubai to rise a further 4 to 5.9 per cent in the second half of the year, keeping the city among the world’s strongest performers.

Prime rental values in Dubai rose 2.9 per cent in the past six months and 13.3 per cent in the year to June, reflecting moderating yet resilient growth after a strong run.

Renewal rates remain high as Dubai continues to attract high-net-worth individuals and international buyers seeking long-term residence.

Dubai’s prime residential market continues to draw interest

“Despite wider macroeconomic uncertainty, Dubai’s prime residential market continues to demonstrate stability bolstered by strong fundamentals,” said Andrew Cummings, head of Residential Agency, Savills Middle East. “The city’s global connectivity, investor-friendly policies and ongoing infrastructure development continue to underpin its status as one of the world’s leading real estate markets.”

Across the 30 global cities tracked by Savills, prime capital values grew by just 0.7 per cent in H1 2025, while rental values rose 2 per cent. Tokyo led with an 8.8 per cent rise in capital values, while Berlin and Seoul also posted growth above 5 per cent alongside Dubai.

Savills projects average capital value growth of 1.5 per cent and rental growth of 1 per cent across the global markets in H2 2025, with Dubai expected to remain one of the top performers.

The report also highlighted mortgage dynamics in the UAE, where loan terms typically span 15 to 30 years with fixed and variable options.

Minimum deposits are 15 per cent for nationals and 20 per cent for expatriates.

In the prime segment, mortgages are often used strategically for capital efficiency and liquidity management rather than affordability.

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is digitising driver training and qualification through its ‘Tadreeb’ platform, which links all driving institutes across the emirate and fully automates training processes, assessments, and trainee data management.

The platform, managed by RTA’s Licensing Agency, serves about 250,000 trainees annually, delivering more than six million hours of training.

It operates across 27 institutes, supported by over 3,400 instructors and more than 3,000 training vehicles. Each vehicle route is geo-tracked and linked to the main system, creating a paperless training process.

“The purpose of the platform is to identify the needs of trainees based on analysed data, ensuring quality training and licensing a pool of skilled, professional drivers,” said Ahmed Mahboob, CEO of RTA’s Licensing Agency. “It also contributes to achieving the highest safety standards, enhancing performance quality, and strengthening governance processes in line with global best practices.”

Benefits of RTA’s Tadreeb platform

According to RTA, the system has improved training quality, enhanced transparency in assessments, and helped reduce fatalities among new drivers. Integrated smart dashboards monitor training indicators and automate evaluation criteria, while links to relevant authorities halve permit waiting times, reduce costs, and enable remote monitoring.

Compliance among trainers with required training stages has reached 97 per cent.

Tadreeb is the first unified driver training platform globally to be recognised by the International Commission for Driver Testing (CIECA) and recently received the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award.

RTA said future developments will include deeper use of artificial intelligence to personalise training, automate oversight, and enhance the customer experience.

Read: RTA wraps up traffic upgrades at 10 school zones, 27 schools to benefit

Just five years ago, few would’ve imagined that generative AI would move from research labs into our daily workflows, drafting contracts, writing code, diagnosing medical conditions, and shaping government policies. What started as a curiosity is now embedded across boardrooms, classrooms, hospitals, and ministries in the Middle East and beyond.

We’re in an era where AI can simulate economies, flag emerging health threats, and interpret complex regulations faster than a team of experts would ever be able to do on their own. And yet, those of us closest to the work know that we’re only getting started.

We are entering a phase where AI will move from supporting tasks to independently managing them. It will make decisions, manage processes, and deliver results with minimal human oversight. This marks a transition to a new class of systems; intelligent teammates capable of driving outcomes autonomously. And they will be powered by agentic AI.

What is Agentic AI?

Agentic AI refers to autonomous systems that can take a goal, break it down into steps, adapt to real-time changes, and execute independently. Think of it as the evolution from guided support to true operational autonomy.

Imagine assigning an AI agent the task of reducing procurement costs. Rather than just retrieving data, it would analyze historical trends, identify savings opportunities, request quotes, and recommend contract changes end-to-end. A healthcare agent might triage symptoms, prioritize cases, and even refer patients.

This isn’t a distant vision. It’s already happening. In logistics, agentic AI is being explored in areas like fleet routing, inventory management and disruption response. The banking, retail and manufacturing sectors are leveraging agentic AI for customer service automation, supply chain enhancement and real-time financial anomaly detection.

Agentic AI can power businesses by embedding AI agents into core functions like procurement, productivity, and process automation. In procurement it identifies high-performing, sustainable suppliers, accelerates sourcing-to-award cycles, ensures compliance, and drives measurable savings.

It can drive productivity by empowering teams to deploy no-code AI agents that coordinate workflows, surface knowledge, and make intelligent decisions faster, more accurately, and at greater scale than human-led systems that reduce project cycles from weeks to days.

To support executive adoption and strategic deployment, an AI-native, voice-enabled application has been developed that enhances executive and boardroom decision-making by automating meeting preparation, enabling real-time insights and cross-referencing, and streamlining post-meeting reporting.

It’s role in the future

As agentic AI adoption picks up across the globe, its greatest impact will be felt not just in how it optimises workflows, but how it empowers people. By handling repetitive, high-volume tasks, agentic systems allow professionals to focus on strategic, creative, and high-trust work – the areas where human judgment is essential.

This evolution can help businesses and governments build smarter, faster, and more resilient operations, without added complexity or overheads. In a region deeply invested in digital transformation and talent development, this shift can play a major role in accelerating progress toward achieving digital ambitions.

Indeed, the real opportunity lies in how seamlessly these systems become part of everyday work. Success won’t be defined by the tools themselves, but by how effectively they support people, processes, and decision-making. This means creating environments where AI not just assists but accelerates human potential at every level.

Preparing for the shift

Of course, greater autonomy demands greater care. Agentic systems must be built with security, transparency, and accountability from the start. They need to operate within local legal and cultural frameworks, and their outputs must be explainable – especially in high-stakes environments.

The shift toward agentic AI is already underway. For businesses, the focus now should be on incorporating systems that deliver lasting value and integrate seamlessly into operations, supporting real-world goals, adapting to change, and elevating human capability at every level.

The writer is the CEO of Inception, a G42 Company.

flynas has announced the resumption of direct flights between Jeddah and Kuwait starting November 1, 2025. The move is part of the airline’s broader expansion strategy and aligns with national aviation and tourism objectives under Saudi Vision 2030.

The resumed service will include three weekly flights between Kuwait International Airport and King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah. This addition brings flynas’ total frequency between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to 10 flights per week, including an existing daily Riyadh–Kuwait service.

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This expanded connectivity is a strategic part of flynas’ long-term growth plan titled “We Connect the World to the Kingdom.” It supports the National Civil Aviation Strategy aiming to connect Saudi Arabia with 250 international destinations, accommodate 330 million passengers, and host 150 million tourists annually by 2030. The route will also contribute to the Pilgrims Experience Program (PEP) by enhancing access to the Two Holy Mosques.

Boost to tourism and bilateral travel

The revival of Jeddah–Kuwait flights is expected to stimulate business and tourism travel between the two nations, strengthening bilateral ties. It will also support economic diversification efforts in line with Vision 2030 by enhancing Saudi Arabia’s status as a global travel hub.

flynas continues to lead regional aviation innovation. As the first airline listed on the Saudi Exchange (Tadawul), it now operates 139 routes across more than 70 domestic and international destinations in 30 countries, offering 2,000+ weekly flights. Since its inception in 2007, the airline has flown over 80 million passengers, with plans to expand its network to 165 destinations.

Family-first innovation: Kids check-in counter unveiled

In another industry-first initiative, flynas recently launched a dedicated check-in counter for children and their families, becoming the first family-friendly airline in Saudi Arabia. Announced in July 2025, this initiative aims to create a fun, stress-free, and inclusive travel experience for families.

Under the campaign slogan “Make Them the Stars of the Journey,” the first phase of this initiative was launched at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, at the domestic terminal. The counter is designed with bright visuals, a custom-built, child-height counter, and colorful branding featuring the airline’s Fernas mascot.

The space includes branded barriers, playful signage, and a welcoming environment tailored specifically for children. Staff are specially trained to provide warm, friendly, and personalised service. Young travelers also receive customised boarding passes, adding a fun and memorable touch to their journey.

This pioneering move is a part of flynas’ broader commitment to inclusivity in travel and enhancing the overall passenger experience for all segments of society.

Emirates is set to expand its Premium Economy service to four more cities across the Middle East and West Asia, as it continues to upgrade its fleet with next-generation Airbus A350s and retrofitted A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft. The move aims to meet growing demand for upscale travel options and ensure a more consistent customer experience across its network.

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Starting October 26 2025, Emirates will operate flights EK903/904 to and from Amman with a four-class A380 featuring refreshed interiors, including the Premium Economy cabin. With this upgrade, both daily services to Amman will now offer the airline’s latest signature products, an Emirates Media Centre report said.

Mumbai will benefit from a retrofitted Boeing 777 on EK504/505 from the same date, expanding access to Emirates’ newest cabin products on 22 weekly flights to the Indian commercial capital.

From 30 October, Emirates will deploy the Airbus A350 on EK862/863 services to Muscat every Thursday and Saturday. This change will bring the airline’s acclaimed A350 experience to all nine weekly flights to the Omani capital.

Meanwhile, starting December 4, Bahrain will see an additional retrofitted Boeing 777 operating on EK833/834 every Thursday. This enhancement will make all flights to Bahrain exclusively served by aircraft featuring Emirates’ signature cabins, including the Premium Economy and a refreshed Business Class.

Scaling premium economy across the network

These deployments are part of a broader strategy to scale Emirates’ Premium Economy offering, which now spans over 635 weekly flights. By the winter season, 68 cities will be served by aircraft equipped with Premium Economy, with 36 of them exclusively operated by such aircraft.

As the appetite for premium travel grows, Emirates plans to offer over 2 million Premium Economy seats annually by the end of 2025, up from 1.8 million today.

The fleet-wide upgrade is part of one of the largest retrofit programs in aviation history. To date, 67 aircraft have been refurbished, with work progressing at a pace of one aircraft every three weeks. The airline aims to retrofit 219 aircraft, including 110 Airbus A380s and 109 Boeing 777s. Emirates is also currently flying nine A350s to 15 global destinations.