Dubai Customs boosts productivity through AI based system

Dubai, United Arab Emirates - 17 June 2019:  Sultan bin Sulayem, DP World Group Chairman & CEO and Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCFC) expressed his happiness that the “Productivity Engine” was approved by the Dubai Executive Council to be used at the government departments level. 

The engine, developed in-house by Dubai Customs, uses artificial intelligence to boost productivity, reduce costs and make clients happier and more satisfied towards the fulfilments of Dubai bold plans and vision.

Bin Sulayem highly applauded the role of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council of realizing the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai in the 50-Year Charter and the Eight Principles of Dubai which aim to consolidate the emirate’s position as a world hub for tourism and business. 
The AI based productivity engine has many features which include the ideal time calculator, productivity predictor, and leadership nudges. 

Most importantly, the innovative engine encompasses an auto-time tracker that highlights productive and unaccounted time and notifies decision makers of productivity scores for each department and employee.

Sultan bin Sulayem said: 

“The productivity engine assists leaders in harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and giving recommendations aimed at creating better workplaces to support legitimate trade. With this creative service, the Ports, Customs, and Free Zone Corporation (PCFC) aims to create a scalable productivity disruption program that can be implemented at other government organizations in fulfilment of the vision of our wise leadership. 

“Advanced AI technologies increase ROI and attracts new investments while boosting productivity and facilitating procedures. PCFC is doing very well in this regard and we have implemented and developed a number of bold systems including the Smart Risk Engine, the Authorized Economic Operator and Dubai Customs’ Smart iDeclare System for passengers, among others” bin Sulayem added. 

On his part, Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director General of Dubai Customs said: 

“We have certain targets that we look forward to in the next two years which include reducing workload by 16.8%, increasing productivity capacity by 10%, automation of operations by 0.5%, and better employee commitment by 5.2%. This will save us 1,280,000 work hours. In Dubai Customs we realize how important boosting productivity and performance is.

To this end, we have grown our productivity 15% year-on-year after Mirsal 2 joined the service. Having an innovative productivity engine means that we can handle the additional capacity without expanding our headcount. We have 7,400 independent tasks and it’s impossible for humans to watch over them all, but the new system can calculate the ideal time for each task. And since it’s based on artificial intelligence, the system will keep learning and adjusting the ideal time for the tasks”.