A six-pillar benchmark measuring how prepared societies are for AI — scored from policy and infrastructure data, and from structured civic dialogue captured at AI TownSquare sessions.
Dubai/UAE is the first fully scored cohort. Every city is benchmarked against the Global Average shown below.
Dubai / UAE
Global Average
Pilot baseline — not yet a global ranking. How these scores are built ↓
Several excellent AI-readiness indices already exist — and none of them ask the public directly. The SRI adds that missing layer: it scores governance, ethics, infrastructure, and the economy alongside structured civic dialogue, so a society's readiness reflects what its citizens actually experience, not policy documents alone.
Read the Manifesto behind the index →Six frameworks measuring different slices of AI and digital readiness — scope, pillars, and what sets each apart.
| Index & Sponsor | Scope | Pillars | What Sets It Apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Societal Readiness Index (SRI) AI TownSquare / SafeHaven | Holistic societal capacity to adapt to AI, combining policy and infrastructure data with structured civic dialogue. | Governance Agility · Citizen Empowerment · Ethical Infrastructure · Economic Adaptability · Technological Infrastructure · Inclusive Foresight | The only index here built in part on live, structured public deliberation rather than desk research or expert survey alone. Currently a pilot cohort (Dubai/UAE) — not yet a global ranking. |
| Government AI Readiness Index Oxford Insights / IDRC | Government and public-sector readiness to deploy AI. | Government · Technology Sector · Data & Infrastructure | Established, policy-focused methodology with wide country coverage. |
| Global AI Vibrancy / AI Index Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI | Overall AI ecosystem vibrancy — innovation and societal impact. | R&D · Economy · Education · Infrastructure · Diversity · Policy & Governance · Public Opinion · Responsible AI | Data-rich, multi-indicator benchmark spanning both outputs and inputs, including public sentiment. |
| Global Competitiveness Index (4IR lens) World Economic Forum | Broad economic competitiveness and innovation capacity for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. | Institutions · Infrastructure · ICT Adoption · Skills · Innovation Capability | Macro-economic foundation readiness — not AI-specific, but strongly contextual. |
| AI Policy Observatory OECD | Trustworthy AI development and use, aligned to the OECD AI Principles. | The five OECD AI Principles, plus enablers — compute, data, R&D | Principle-based and government-endorsed; focused on governance quality over raw capacity. |
| Digital Readiness / ICT Indices ITU, UNESCO, and others | Core digital infrastructure, access, and skills — a pre-condition for AI readiness. | ICT Access · ICT Use · ICT Skills | Foundational digital-divide benchmarks, often tied to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. |
Summarized from published methodology descriptions. Each organization's own site is the authoritative source for current scope and coverage.
Regulatory frameworks, policy readiness, and institutional capacity for AI oversight.
What's measured: Days to enact AI-specific legislation; adoption of regulatory sandboxes.
Reference practice — Singapore: Singapore's AI Governance Testing Framework, revised on a quarterly cycle. (a global example of strong practice in this dimension, not a Dubai/UAE data source.)
Public awareness, digital literacy, and citizen participation in AI governance.
What's measured: Share of citizens with baseline AI literacy; turnout in deliberative assemblies.
Reference practice — Taiwan: Taiwan's vTaiwan platform, where citizens co-design digital legislation. (a global example of strong practice in this dimension, not a Dubai/UAE data source.)
Ethical guidelines, bias mitigation, transparency, and accountability measures.
What's measured: Diversity of independent oversight bodies; existence of public AI-audit trails.
Reference practice — New York City: NYC's Local Law 144, requiring bias audits of automated hiring tools. (a global example of strong practice in this dimension, not a Dubai/UAE data source.)
Workforce transition readiness, reskilling infrastructure, and economic resilience.
What's measured: Reskilling-program funding as a share of budget; pilot income-support programs.
Reference practice — Finland: Finland's AI-driven job-matching and reskilling initiatives. (a global example of strong practice in this dimension, not a Dubai/UAE data source.)
Digital infrastructure, data governance, and technical capacity.
What's measured: Open-source AI adoption rate; cybersecurity-readiness posture.
Reference practice — India: India's Aadhaar digital-ID system, powering AI-driven welfare delivery at population scale. (a global example of strong practice in this dimension, not a Dubai/UAE data source.)
Future-readiness planning, scenario analysis, and adaptive policy mechanisms.
What's measured: Global-South contribution to AI standards; youth participation in policy workshops.
Reference practice — Rwanda: Rwanda's collaborative AI-policy development with rural communities. (a global example of strong practice in this dimension, not a Dubai/UAE data source.)
The Societal Readiness Index aggregates qualitative civic data from AI TownSquare sessions with quantitative policy and infrastructure metrics. Each session contributes to the index through structured dialogue outputs—the Civic Briefs.
Scores are weighted across six pillars that reflect the multidimensional nature of societal readiness for AI. Governance carries the highest weight (25%) because regulatory and institutional frameworks set the conditions for all other dimensions.
Raw indicators are normalized to a 0–100 scale against a best-case and worst-case benchmark:
Illustrative example from the SRI white paper: a market taking 120 days to pass AI-specific legislation, against a 60-day best case and a 365-day worst case, normalizes to roughly 80 — showing how an operational metric becomes a comparable score. This is a worked example of the method, not a published national data point.
Pilot baseline, not a finished ranking. Dubai/UAE is currently the only fully scored cohort, benchmarked against an illustrative global average. Regional scores are updated as new sessions are conducted and new cities are added. The index is designed to be a living benchmark that evolves with new civic data, not a static league table.
The SRI white paper walks through a hypothetical worked example to show the index's intended feedback loop — not a published result:
This is a worked example from the white paper Towards Societal Readiness, used here to illustrate the diagnose → intervene → re-measure cycle the SRI is designed to run.
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