ABU DHABI — Telecommunications operator etisalat UAE, the flagship telecommunications vertical of e&, has achieved accredited certification to ISO IEC 42001:2023 for its Artificial Intelligence Management System, establishing the carrier as the first telecommunications operator across the Middle East and North Africa region to attain the landmark international standard.
The milestone follows an exhaustive independent assessment executed by LRQA, a global provider of assurance, inspection, and certification services accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to audit organizations against ISO IEC 42001 parameters. The certification represents an architectural shift for etisalat UAE, moving its operational deployment of artificial intelligence from decentralized project execution toward an enterprise wide, systematically governed management framework.
Recognized as the world’s first formal international standard dedicated to artificial intelligence governance, ISO IEC 42001:2023 delivers an auditable operational blueprint for identifying and treating artificial intelligence related risks, capitalizing on algorithmic opportunities, and embedding continuous lifecycle supervision. Within etisalat UAE, the audit evaluation involved cross functional collaboration across Technology and Information, the AI Engineering and Factory division, Business Excellence teams, and operational use case owners.
Marwan Bin Shakar, Chief Technology Officer at etisalat UAE, highlighted that as algorithmic architectures expand across network infrastructure and commercial operations, robust governance structures must advance in lockstep with raw engineering capabilities. Bin Shakar affirmed that ISO IEC 42001 delivers a structured methodology to evaluate societal impact, manage cybersecurity and algorithmic risks, and enforce meaningful human oversight across the technology lifecycle, ensuring that large scale machine learning deployments sustain stakeholder trust.
Antonietta Mastroianni, Chief Information Officer at etisalat UAE, noted that responsible artificial intelligence demands clear accountability, repeatable workflows, and continuous performance tracking. Mastroianni stated that adopting the international standard provides internal engineering units with a consistent baseline for deploying models while giving commercial enterprise clients and technology vendors transparent assurance on data governance.
The accredited governance framework proves particularly critical as etisalat UAE expands its deployment footprint into frontier operational domains, including autonomous agentic AI orchestration, machine learning powered threat detection through its NetSecure360 cybersecurity platform, and collaborative research initiatives alongside academic institutions such as the University of Sharjah AI Innovation Lab.
The credential directly reinforces etisalat UAE’s long term mandate to operate as a leading cognitive digital telco while aligning with the United Arab Emirates’ national objective to establish global leadership in sovereign artificial intelligence capability, safety standards, and responsible innovation.
