Lebanon bets on training one million people in artificial intelligence: skill as a gateway to a longer economic transformation

What can a broad AI training program do for an economy undergoing reconstruction? In Beirut, the government does not offer the answer with a promise of quick returns. State Minister for Technology and Artificial Intelligence Kamal Shahade describes the path as a long-term investment: mass education that helps digitise the economy, then opens a wider space for using digital tools at work and in daily life.

According to what was reported byArab NewsAccording to Shahade, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon launched the “One Million Lebanese AI Experts” initiative on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York. The initiative operates within the UAE government knowledge-exchange programme, and its aim is to provide practical training for one million Lebanese in generative artificial intelligence and prompt engineering, i.e., crafting the instructions that guide AI tools. The initial target figure is 1.1 million people, while Shahade also speaks of reaching at least half the population within a few years.

The bet is not on a single courseShahade distinguishes a broad group of users who learn to operate the tools, calling them “the inoculators,” from roughly 15,000 to 20,000 “builders” expected to develop the digital services those users employ. In this view, knowing the tool itself is not enough; its widespread use is assumed to generate demand for the digitisation that the government is pursuing. According to the minister, training is a facilitator of digital transformation rather than an independent plan to reform public services or the private sector.

Practical details remain important. The training is funded by major tech firms and local companies, and the ministry has also launched a specialised programme in which thousands of Lebanese have registered through universities, NGOs and municipalities. The courses conclude with certificates and cover the use of AI prompts, programming and designing solutions for various sectors. This makes the initiative go beyond a generic “future-readiness” rhetoric, but it does not on its own prove that economic transformation has been achieved or that jobs have actually changed.

Skill in the face of migrationThat is the knot acknowledged by the debate. Lebanon has long suffered from brain drain, but Shahade does not expect that teaching basic tool usage will raise migration rates, because he distinguishes this training from the highly-demanded specialised skills abroad. Instead, he links it to improving the business environment, especially for tech start-ups, and to providing financing that helps them grow. He says the government is simultaneously pursuing reforms that include rebuilding the banking sector, and he anticipates an increasing role for investors and firms from the Gulf in the economic recovery. That is a declared governmental ambition, not a result that can be asserted before its impact appears in the market.

For a worker in Lebanon, or for an employer in the Gulf and the Levant, the initiative offers a practical signal: AI use is shifting from an optional skill to a broader work foundation. The minister says its impact on jobs is not immediate, but he expects all occupations to be affected in the medium and long term, and that employers will prefer those who have mastered its use. Hence the regional value lies in the UAE-Lebanese partnership not merely transferring training, but testing whether mass education can create a user base that supports digital services and local companies. Success will not be measured by the number of registrants alone, but by the ability of trainees and institutions to turn this knowledge into work, productivity and career options inside Lebanon.