The next time residents in the UAE go to renew their ID cards they are likely to be greeted by Hamad, an Arabic speaking robot who can do everything from providing status of the ID card and ID card application to locating and directing the customer to different service centers to processing applications for ID card renewal and even accepting payments. Attired in national UAE costume and fluent in 3 languages, Hamad is the first robot in the world to be deployed to provide front office customer services. He is also the first robot in the world to process a payment for service delivery. For more information about Hamad, see here. Hamad is not, however, the only example of UAE innovation in action. Earlier last summer, as FedScoop recently reported, the UAE announced plans to award more than $1million in prizes for the best new ideas to improve people’s lives using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones. Check out Julia’s take on innovation in the UAE at http://fedscoop.com/uae-offers-1-million-innovation-prize-public-service-drones/.