Morocco launches Rally AI Future Lab to accelerate innovation
1,000 researchers and developers gather in Merzouga for inaugural five-day sprint
#Morocco #innovation – Morocco’s Ministry of Digital Transition and Administrative Reform has launched the Rally AI Future Lab, a national initiative organised by the Jazari Institute under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI. The lab brings together 1,000 researchers, engineers, students, entrepreneurs and developers for a five-day intensive programme in the city of Merzouga, from 16 to 20 June 2026. Under Morocco’s broader AI Made in Morocco strategy, the programme is designed to build technological sovereignty by developing locally designed AI solutions tailored to the real needs of citizens, government and the national economy. The Rally AI Future Lab has an ambition to reach 5,000 participants across multiple cohorts throughout the Kingdom’s 12 regions.
SO WHAT? – In January, Morocco launched AI Made in Morocco, a national artificial intelligence initiative targeting a 100 billion dirham ($10 billion) contribution to GDP and the creation of 50,000 AI-related jobs. The new Rally AI Future Lab forms part of the effort to build domestic AI capability from the ground up. The programme will play a role in talent, prototyping AI solutions and creating a pipeline from idea to operational product. In line with other recent initiatives, the government made a deliberate effort to launch the programme in Merzouga, in the east of Morocco, demonstrating that this is a national programme that will reach the whole country.
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The Rally AI Future Lab was launched by Morocco’s Ministry of Digital Transition and Administrative Reform under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, in line with Royal Directives for digital development, innovation and human capital enhancement. The initiative reflects AI’s elevation to a matter of national strategic priority in Morocco.
Organised under the umbrella of the Jazari Institute, the inaugural lab runs from 16 to 20 June 2026 in Merzouga, in the Drâa-Tafilalet region. By choosing to launch Rally AI Future Lab in Merzouga rather than Rabat or Casablanca, the government is demonstrating that it is serious about national inclusion across all 12 regions. Around 1,000 participants will take part in an intensive five-day programme combining training, experimentation, prototyping and mentoring.
The programme targets the creation of high-impact AI projects across four priority areas: modernisation of public services, administrative efficiency, digital inclusion and economic competitiveness. The focus is on applied, citizen-facing solutions rather than purely academic or experimental outputs.
The initiative has a stated ambition of reaching 5,000 participants divided across several cohorts throughout Morocco. The phased expansion model is designed to build a sustained national innovation initiative rather than a one-off event.
Rally AI Future Lab builds directly on the success of the RamadanIA Hackathon, which was deployed across all twelve regions of Morocco and mobilised more than 700 participants and around 50 mentors. The national final in Rabat brought together nearly 170 selected talents, with several teams distinguishing themselves through the maturity of their AI solutions.
The initiative sits within Morocco’s broader AI Made in Morocco strategy, which aims to use AI as a lever for technological sovereignty, economic competitiveness and public sector transformation. The strategy seeks to unite public, private, academic and international ecosystems around concrete solutions designed in Morocco and adapted to local needs.
The Ministry describes its goal as installing a sustainable architecture of innovation. The emphasis is on the gradual, structured transition from ideas to operational solutions at national scale.
ZOOM OUT – The Rally AI Future Lab connects to a wider architecture Morocco is building to build AI capability across all twelve of its regions. Last year, Digital Transition Minister Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni announced plans to expand the Al Jazari Institute nationwide, creating a network of centres of excellence specifically in Morocco's less developed and less populated regions. The inaugural Al Jazari Institute is located in the Guelmim-Oued Noun region in the southwest, and a memorandum of understanding has been signed to establish a second institute in Nador, in the northeast Rif region, marking the start of a national rollout. The institutes are mandated to deliver four functions: training and skills development, applied research and co-innovation, shared digital platforms and data infrastructure, and incubation and acceleration of AI solutions.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]
Source: Ministère de la Transition numérique et de la Réforme de l’administration