DUBAI, UAE (WAM) – H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), has directed Dubai Future Week be held from 18th to 21st November 2026.
Dubai Future Week represents the next chapter in the evolution of Dubai Future Foundation’s global events and initiatives.
Building on the communities, conversations and outcomes created by its established platforms, the week will bring them together in one connected, human-centred experience across Emirates Towers and the Museum of the Future.
Designed as a global platform bringing together government leaders, scientists, futurists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, investors, creators and innovators, Dubai Future Week will explore what the future holds for humanity and what it will mean to be human in the decades ahead.
The event will examine the future not as something distant or abstract, but as something that will shape how people wake up, move through their cities, learn, work, care for their health, build relationships and make everyday decisions. It will move the global conversation from anticipating change towards developing ideas, partnerships, policies and solutions that place people at the centre and translate foresight into tangible impact.
H.H. Sheikh Hamdan affirmed that Dubai’s journey to design and shape the future continues under the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and in line with his directives to make future readiness a strategic priority and place humanity’s future at the centre of long-term plans, initiatives and policies.
H.H. Sheikh Hamdan said, “Dubai continues to strengthen its position as a global hub for the world’s most ambitious ideas and future-focused visions – a platform where impactful partnerships and initiatives take shape, and a destination for leading minds, experts and future shapers from around the world.”
He added, “Dubai calls on the world to embark on a new era of international collaboration that accelerates the use of technology in the service of people and societies. This requires directing investment and strategies towards technologies and innovations that advance human wellbeing, enhance quality of life, and help secure a better future for generations to come.”
Organised by Dubai Future Foundation, Dubai Future Week will take place across Emirates Towers and the Museum of the Future. Its programme will feature keynote addresses, debates, fireside conversations, workshops, international challenges and competitions, idea pitches, exhibitions, immersive future experiences, closed-door discussions, specialist sessions, public activations and other formats designed to explore the forces shaping the decades ahead.
Held under the tagline ‘For the Human of the Future,’ Dubai Future Week will place people at the centre of the conversation, exploring how they will live, think, innovate, feel and do business as scientific, technological, economic and social transformations accelerate.
The week begins from a simple premise: the future is personal. Its impact will be felt not only in laboratories, institutions and industries, but in people’s homes, schools, workplaces, hospitals, neighbourhoods and relationships.
Rather than approaching the future solely through the lens of technology, Dubai Future Week will examine what these transformations mean for people: how they could reshape everyday life, knowledge, health, work, economies and societies, and how emerging opportunities can be translated into better outcomes for humanity.
The focus will be not only on what is changing, but on how those changes will feel, whom they will serve and how they can improve daily life.
Dubai Future Week will bring together more than 10,000 participants, including leading inventors, innovators, experts, investors, policymakers, entrepreneurs, technologists and specialists from critical and future-focused sectors around the world.
Participants will explore and experience developments expected to reshape sectors that directly affect people’s lives, examine the major transformations redefining the world and develop new perspectives on what the decades ahead could look like. They will be invited to see, question and experience the future through the realities of human life – from the food people eat and the places they inhabit to how they learn, earn, connect, heal and belong.
The week will build on the success of established global events hosted by the Dubai Future Foundation, including the Dubai Future Forum and Dubai AI Week, bringing their communities, ideas and areas of expertise together as part of a broader, connected platform.
It will also bring together major initiatives including AI Grandmaster, the Dubai Foresight Awards and the Dubai Future Solutions – Prototypes for Humanity exhibition, while featuring inspirational TED Talks.
Together, these platforms will create a week in which foresight meets experimentation, ideas move towards implementation and the future becomes more tangible, accessible and relevant to people’s lives. The result will not be another conventional conference, but a place where people can encounter the future, understand what it means for them and participate in shaping what comes next.
Dubai Future Week will address a wide range of critical sectors, including foresight and futures thinking, artificial intelligence, healthcare, education, fintech, logistics and infrastructure, mobility, robotics and automation, policy and regulation, sport, energy, climate and sustainability, space and other fields shaping the decades ahead.
These sectors will not be treated as isolated areas of technical progress, but as interconnected forces that will shape the texture of daily life: how long and how well people live, how they understand the world, how they move, work and create, and how communities and economies evolve around them.
While engaging with these sectors, the programme will not examine what lies ahead through the lens of individual industries alone. Instead, five human-centred tracks will explore how emerging transformations will affect the ways in which people, businesses and societies live, think, innovate, feel and do business.
Dubai Future Week will be structured around five main tracks: How We’ll Live, How We’ll Think, How We’ll Innovate, How We’ll Feel and How We’ll Do Business. Together, the tracks will present the future through the dimensions of human experience rather than through technologies or industries alone.
How We’ll Live will explore the homes, cities and world we are building, examining how everyday life and the places people inhabit could change in the decades ahead.
The track will address the future of housing, urban design, mobility, longevity and people’s relationship with their surroundings. It will also explore climate resilience, net-zero infrastructure, nature-based urban solutions, rewilding, ocean health and ecosystem regeneration.
Discussions will extend to the future of security and defence, as well as culture, identity and the evolving meaning of belonging in a changing world. At its centre will be a deeply human question: What will an ordinary day feel like in the cities, homes and communities of the future?
How We’ll Think will explore intelligence, learning and knowledge in an age of AI, examining how education, human cognition and decision-making may evolve as technology reshapes the ways in which people understand and interact with the world.
The track will consider the skills future generations will need, the impact of artificial intelligence on how people access and interpret information, critical thinking in increasingly complex information environments, the future of schools and universities, media literacy, cognitive enhancement, and how future generations may understand and engage with knowledge and truth.
Beyond the tools people may use, the track will explore how change could influence curiosity, judgment, memory, creativity and people’s ability to make sense of the world around them.
How We’ll Innovate will examine robotics, automation and the technologies transforming society, including the role of algorithms and intelligent machines in the next wave of technological progress.
Discussions will consider how robotics and automation could reshape work, logistics and everyday life, alongside advances in quantum computing, synthetic biology, materials science and space technologies.
The track will also examine fundamental questions surrounding technological progress: Who controls technology? Who benefits from it? And how can societies ensure that the pace of innovation does not outstrip their ability to govern it wisely?
How We’ll Feel will explore health, wellbeing and what it means to thrive as a human, examining the relationship between food, the human body, health and quality of life.
The track will explore emerging opportunities in food and agriculture, including vertical farming, lab-grown proteins and AI-enhanced supply chains, alongside the evolving relationship between culture, taste and identity.
It will also examine advances in healthcare, diagnostics, longevity science, mental health and biotechnology, as well as the future of sport, human performance, and the wellness economy.
At its core, the track will ask a fundamental question: How will people thrive in the future, and what will it mean to be human in the decades ahead?
How We’ll Do Business will explore money, markets and the investments of tomorrow, bringing together perspectives from entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders on the forces reshaping business, finance and capital.
The track will examine the rise of decentralised economies, responsible applications of artificial intelligence in business, start-up ecosystems, evolving policy and regulatory frameworks, and the changing relationship between risk and return in the future economy.
Through these conversations, participants will consider how businesses can remain competitive, resilient and relevant as new technologies, markets and models of value creation emerge. It will also examine how these shifts will affect people as employees, entrepreneurs, consumers and members of society.
Dubai Future Week is the natural evolution of Dubai Future Foundation’s work to connect foresight, technology, innovation, policy and human experience. By bringing its leading events, initiatives and global communities together, the week will create a platform where their ideas and outcomes can intersect, build on one another and reach new audiences.
At its heart, Dubai Future Week is about making the future real: moving it beyond predictions and presentations and into the choices, experiences and systems that shape how people live. It will invite participants not simply to observe what is coming, but to understand their place within it and take part in designing it.
It reflects Dubai’s continued commitment to moving beyond simply anticipating change towards actively designing the future. By convening the people shaping science, technology, policy, business and society, Dubai Future Week will turn foresight into collaboration, emerging ideas into practical solutions, and technological progress into better lives for people and future generations.
NEWS AND IMAGE COURTESY: WAM NEWS (www.wam.ae)
