Startups to Watch at Dubai AI Festival 2026
A shortlist for investors, universities, educators and creators exploring AI at Dubai AI Festival 2026, with questions to start useful conversations.
A guide for investors, universities, educators and content creators · 26–27 October · Dubai World Trade Centre
Looking for companies to explore at Dubai AI Festival? Here's our shortlist, grouped by your interests. It includes early-stage startups and more established AI businesses.
Disclosure: SLAN publishes this guide and is exhibiting at booth S175. This is an editorial selection, not an official ranking or a hands-on review. Confirm attendance and booth details through the organiser's current listings.
For investors
| Company | What it does | Why watch it |
|---|---|---|
| Legora | AI for legal research, review and drafting | A specialist product with law-firm adoption offers a case study in embedding AI into high-value professional work. |
| Togal.AI | Automated measurement of construction drawings for estimating | Targets a specific, repetitive workflow where customers can evaluate time saved and accuracy. |
| Daleel | Conversational property-market intelligence | Combines local property data with a focused use case, making data access and domain expertise worth exploring. |
| MetisJean | Enterprise AI running on a customer's own infrastructure | Targets buyers whose privacy and deployment requirements shape which AI products they can adopt. |
| Grantify | Grant discovery and applications supported by AI and human experts | Combines software with expert review in a service where customers have a clear financial goal. |
| SLAN | Personalised AI coaching grounded in expert materials and frameworks | Early pilots, usage by almost 600 students at London Business School, and testimonials from students and professors offer promising early signals as SLAN expands into business applications. |
Ask what customers pay for, how often they use the product and why they stay. Funding helps explain a company's stage; customer evidence helps explain the business.
For universities and educators
| Company | What to explore |
|---|---|
| SLAN | AI coaches grounded in professors' materials and frameworks, helping students apply course concepts |
| ResearchCollab | Literature discovery, paper analysis and collaborative research |
| Amira Learning | AI tutoring that listens to students read aloud and provides support |
| Misraj AI | Arabic AI, including translation, dialects and document recognition |
| DataCamp | Data and AI skills training |
Ask for a demonstration relevant to the people you teach, and how progress would be assessed.
For content creators and founders
| Company | What to explore |
|---|---|
| SLAN | Turning your materials and expertise into personalised AI coaching experiences |
| Misraj AI | Arabic language, translation and dialect capabilities |
| RaiseTalks | Fundraising preparation, data rooms and investor workflows |
| VenturOS | AI co-founders supporting operations, product, technology and marketing |
Ask what works today, what information the product needs and what still requires your judgment.
For SME founders and teams
Your expertise in action is the idea behind SLAN. Building on its use in education, SLAN is now expanding into business applications. If you run an SME, bring a challenge you're working through and explore how an AI coach could help you apply relevant expertise, examine assumptions and think through your next steps.
Leave room to discover
You don't need a buying brief to have a useful conversation. Ask founders what they're building and tell them about your work. If something interests you, arrange a follow-up to explore fit, cost and implementation.
Look out for the FutureTech World Cup, the festival's startup pitching programme. Check the current agenda for its 2026 arrangements.
Prepare for your visit, browse the official sponsor and exhibitor wall, or meet SLAN at S175. We're next to the coffee stand.
Descriptions reflect the companies' advertised capabilities, rather than independently tested performance.