Two Abu Dhabi technology companies have agreed to work together on a new way of running cities. Origen and TACTICA AI have signed an agreement to combine digital twin simulation with AI powered decision tools, so that cities and critical infrastructure can test decisions before they are taken in the real world.
The memorandum of understanding was signed on 6 November in Abu Dhabi by Sebastian Shi, co-founder of Origen, and Dr. Chaouki Kasmi, co-founder of TACTICA AI. Dr. Najwa Aaraj, chief executive of the Technology Innovation Institute, and Frank Dai, founder of Origen, attended the signing.
A digital copy of the city, tested before the real one changes
A digital twin is a living, three dimensional copy of a real place, built from live data. Origen’s version gives decision makers a high fidelity view of a city, combining Earth observation and live operational data so that operators can see conditions as they actually are.
The idea is simple, and powerful. Before a city changes a traffic system, approves a new development or responds to an emergency, it can rehearse the decision inside the twin. Planners can test different options, see the likely effects, and choose the best one before anything changes on the ground.
Satellites, sensors and AI agents in one picture
TACTICA AI brings the intelligence layer. Its platform fuses information from satellites, aircraft, ground sensors and open sources into a single picture, then uses agentic AI to work out what needs to happen next. Instead of showing decision makers a dashboard and leaving them to work it out, it recommends courses of action and coordinates the response across teams.
The two systems are designed to work as one. TACTICA AI’s agents can feed scenario inputs into the twin, then act on what the twin shows, recommending actions and coordinating the response. The result is a loop: simulate, decide, act, and learn from what happened.
The technology is aimed at some of the hardest decisions a city can face. The companies list defence and national security, crisis and emergency response, critical infrastructure, smart cities and mobility, energy and utilities, environment and sustainability, and industrial and logistics operations among the sectors it is designed for.
Two young Abu Dhabi companies with deep roots
Both companies are young, but neither is starting from scratch. Origen was founded in 2025 and raised $50 million from BlueFive Capital in February 2026. In May, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Municipalities and Transport appointed Origen to architect Nabd, the emirate’s AI powered digital governance framework. Origen also unveiled DOMIA, a smart living system, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2026.
TACTICA AI became an independent company in 2026, built on technology developed by the Technology Innovation Institute in under 35 days. It introduced its multi-domain decision-support platform at Make it in the Emirates 2026, and it has partnerships with France’s Safran and Poland’s Satim. In October, it announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to scale its agentic AI capabilities.
Sebastian Shi said cities are among a nation’s most complex systems, and every decision taken about them affects the people who live and work there. He said Origen’s digital twin allows decision makers to simulate those decisions before they are taken, and TACTICA AI’s technology helps turn them into coordinated action. Dr. Kasmi said the platform changes the operating model from showing data to helping decide what to do next.
Built in the UAE, for the UAE’s own rules
Both companies are based in Abu Dhabi, and the applications will be developed in the UAE, to meet local technical, security and data residency requirements. The two companies also plan to jointly develop AI models that are trained, refined and deployed inside the country, rather than relying on systems built elsewhere.
That matters more than it might sound. Cities hold sensitive data about infrastructure, movement and security, and governments are increasingly unwilling to send it abroad for processing. Building the tools at home keeps the data at home, and it builds local expertise at the same time.
What rehearsing decisions means for Abu Dhabi
The most interesting part of this agreement is not the technology. It is the change in how decisions get made. For years, smart city projects have been about collecting more data and building better dashboards. Origen and TACTICA AI are betting that the next step is different: fewer dashboards, more decisions, rehearsed in advance.
If it works, the payoff could be large. A city that can test a new road layout, a new energy plan or an emergency response before committing to it will make fewer expensive mistakes. Abu Dhabi has the data, the infrastructure and the ambition to try. The question now is whether two young local companies can turn a memorandum into a system that city officials actually trust when the decision really matters.
