Dubai Chambers and Toronto's Rotman School Launch Agentic AI Course for Family Firms

The programme, called Agentic AI for Family Business Leaders, will be delivered by the Dubai Centre for Family Businesses, which is part of Dubai Chambers, together with Rotman. It is aimed at current family business leaders and at the next generation preparing to take over, Dubai Chambers said in a statement on Thursday. The agreement was signed during a visit to Canada by a delegation led by Mohammad Ali Rashed Lootah, president and chief executive of Dubai Chambers. Salem Al Shamsi, the chamber's executive vice president for international relations, signed it with Joseph Milner, professor and interim dean of the Rotman School.

Family-owned groups make up a large part of Dubai's private sector, and the course treats AI adoption as a matter of governance and succession as much as technology. Lootah said agentic AI could help family businesses "preserve accumulated institutional knowledge" and pass it between generations.

The course has two parts: in-person teaching in Dubai built around discussions, case studies and workshops, followed by three days of company visits in Toronto to see how organisations build, deploy and govern AI agents. It is organised in five modules: AI strategy and organisational transformation; understanding agentic AI and its business value; designing high-value use cases; implementation; and the company visits.

Participants will work on use cases from their own companies and finish with implementation roadmaps covering priorities, organisational readiness, governance and how to measure results. The course will also cover data confidentiality and how to adopt new technology without eroding family values and company culture.

Milner described the programme as a foundation for broader work with Dubai Chambers in the UAE and internationally. The chamber did not say when the first cohort will start, how many places it will offer or what it will cost.