And today on Capital Markets, a look at where healthcare meets artificial intelligence. Our next guest is Dr. Samir Qamar, a family physician with more than 25 years of experience across the medical field, and the founder and CEO of Astrid. Astrid stands for AI System for Trusted Healthcare Resource and Information Decision — a free healthcare companion built by his company AstroDoc. Today we're going to focus on the UAE. Dr. Qamar, thank you so much for joining us today.
It's a pleasure to be here, Jonny.
So last time we spoke, we learned about the impact that Astrid had had. But this time we're seeing that Astrid is recording some of the highest per capita engagement anywhere in the world, right here in the UAE. So walk us through those numbers. What does the usage data actually look like compared to other markets?
Yeah, it's been interesting for us. Astrid, which is a free and accessible healthcare intelligence platform launched in English, was just launched three and a half months ago. Within those three and a half months, we now have users in 85 countries. The UAE comes in at number nine of those 85 countries, which is quite high, but not that surprising.
The reason why it's not surprising is there are a lot of laws and a lot of infrastructure in the UAE that promotes and encourages the use of AI — something the population has gotten used to over the past few years. And I think that's why we see a lot of that there. You add to that the 200 different nationalities that work and live in the UAE, and the one common denominator between all of them for language is English. Because we launched in English, we saw a big uptick in use there, something we expect to see increase over time.
So were you surprised when you saw how many people in the UAE are actually using Astrid, and are they coming to it for the same reasons as users elsewhere, or is the use case different in the UAE?
It wasn't incredibly surprising. We did expect to see some use in the UAE — it's a very AI-friendly, tech-friendly environment. But we do believe it's going to continue to grow. The environment there is set up in a way where we expect it to keep growing over time. We haven't even launched in Arabic yet. Once that happens, we expect it to grow a lot faster.
They're all using it for the same reason — to access reliable, accurate health information. Over the last three and a half months, we've launched healthcare intelligence across medical, dental, and veterinary advice and feedback, and all of that is being used just like it is everywhere else in the world, including the UAE.
So we know that the UAE has spent years building AI into its government services and becoming a truly fintech-friendly nation. Do you think that inherited trust has helped people become more comfortable making decisions using AI, compared to other places in the world?
I think so. I think the UAE government deserves a lot of credit for this. They were the first territory on earth to essentially designate an AI minister, all the way back in 2017 — almost ten years ago — and that position still holds today. Add to that recent statistics published by Microsoft, which showed that the UAE was the number one country in the world where AI was being used by its population, at a staggering 70%.
It's extremely high. To compare, the global average is about 17%, and the US, where a lot of the AI is developed, is only in the 30% range. So there's a very high utilization and acceptance of AI and technology in general in the UAE. There was a law just recently passed in May of 2026 — the AI Healthcare Governance Law — and you're going to have formal governance and regulation coming into play like it is in many places, but that's already started.
And then just three or four days ago, you had the Federal Authority for AI and Data — part of the cabinet — formed by consolidating several government divisions into one, allowing for less bureaucracy and greater tech adoption. You've had a lot of AI experimentation already, and a lot of tech experimentation for the benefit of the people who live there. So yes, I do believe that as AI continues to advance and technology continues to advance, the UAE is going to be at the forefront, trying to help its residents get the best life possible with the technology at their fingertips.
Well, Dr. Qamar, thank you so much for joining us here on On Capital Markets. It's fascinating to learn more about Astrid. Thank you so much.
It's my pleasure, Jonny.
