By Afnan Khalifah
UAE digital-first Islamic community bank Ruya (ruya) has entered a long-term strategic partnership with enterprise AI company Magure to expand the use of agentic artificial intelligence across its banking operations.
The partnership comes after three agentic AI use cases developed by Magure went into production at ruya. The bank said the technology is being used to streamline business account onboarding and other everyday transactions while keeping human employees involved in decisions that require review.
For business customers opening accounts, the AI-supported process can analyze documents, conduct verification checks and prepare case summaries. This allows ruya employees to focus on making decisions rather than handling paperwork, according to the companies.
READ: Magure eyes unicorn status: In conversation with Akhil Koka at CARE and DATE 2025 (December 11, 2025)
Several other transaction workflows have also been designed to process information more quickly and accurately. The companies said each workflow includes a human reviewer, with final decisions remaining with people.
“We didn’t set out to run AI projects we set out to build a bank where intelligence is part of the foundation,” Christoph Koster, CEO of ruya, said in the announcement.
Koster said the bank’s approach to AI is also shaped by its position as an ethical, Shari’ah-compliant financial institution and its focus on protecting customer data.
The AI capability operates within ruya’s private cloud infrastructure using open-source large language models integrated with the bank’s systems. According to the companies, ruya retains ownership and control of its AI capability, while personally identifiable information does not leave the bank’s infrastructure.
From individual AI projects to a bank-wide platform
Rather than developing separate AI systems for individual banking functions, ruya and Magure said they are building a single governed AI framework using Magure’s MagOneAI platform.
The platform is intended to support AI applications across customer service, operations, risk, compliance and employee functions.
The companies’ roadmap includes potential applications for collections, compliance, credit support, a customer AI assistant, personalization, customer analytics and Ruya AI, a private employee assistant designed to use ruya’s internal knowledge.
According to the companies, the shared platform is intended to allow new AI capabilities to move into production in weeks rather than months. The platform also includes auditability for actions carried out through the various AI workflows.
“The hardest part is behind us: the platform, the governance and the sovereign foundation are in place,” Akhil Koka, CEO of Magure, said in the announcement. “From here, every new capability ships on rails that already exist.”
Koka said the AI systems currently operating at ruya are being used in production rather than functioning as a pilot or demonstration.
Focus on responsible AI
The partnership is also designed around the UAE’s broader push to develop artificial intelligence and expectations from the Central Bank of the UAE for responsible AI use by licensed financial institutions.
Those expectations include board-level governance and accountability, transparency and explainability, human oversight of high-impact decisions and consumer protection, according to the announcement.
MagOneAI, incorporates human review into its workflows through designated task nodes that can pause an AI process for human approval, review or override. The platform also provides role-based access controls, centralized monitoring, cost tracking and audit trails through a common governance layer.
READ: In conversation with Supportiyo CEO on turning AI into a digital workforce (December 19, 2025)
Magure said it holds ISO 9001, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 certifications, as well as SOC 2 Type II attestation, covering quality, information security and AI governance.
“Our customers, the UAE’s entrepreneurs, SMEs, families and communities feel this as a bank that simply moves faster and knows them better,” Koster said. “Accounts opened in a fraction of the time, transactions processed without delay, service that doesn’t sleep.”
Ruya Islamic Community Bank LLC, known as ruya, is headquartered in Ajman and launched in 2024. The bank is licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE as a Specialized Bank and provides digital banking services for individuals and businesses. The bank also operates open-door branches intended to provide education and support to its community.
Magure is a UAE-headquartered, DIFC-registered enterprise AI company based in Dubai, with delivery centers in India and a presence in the U.S. Its flagship MagOneAI, platform is designed to build, deploy and govern AI agents on an organization’s own infrastructure using different large language models.
Magure boasts serving more than 80 enterprise customers across government, financial services, health care and large conglomerates, with more than 60 AI deployments in production. Its technology and deployment partners include NVIDIA, AWS, Microsoft Azure, Oracle and Huawei.