Free AI Platform ‘BelMasry’ Supports Egyptian Arabic & 50 Languages

A free artificial intelligence platform built to understand Egyptian colloquial Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic is now available to the public, with tools for transcription, translation and speech generation.

Developed by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology’s Applied Innovation Center, ‘BelMasry’ combines three main systems: speech-to-text, machine translation and text-to-speech. The ministry describes it as Egypt’s first sovereign AI platform of its kind.

Its speech-to-text system can convert spoken Egyptian Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic into written text, distinguish between speakers in multi-person recordings and reduce background noise. Its translation engine works between Arabic and 50 foreign languages, while the text-to-speech tool converts written Arabic into spoken output.

The platform was trained using specialised Egyptian and Arabic linguistic datasets intended to improve recognition of local expressions, cultural references and nuances that broader global AI systems may miss. According to the ministry, this is also intended to support digital services that better reflect the language Egyptians use in everyday life.

Potential uses range from translating reports and assisting researchers to virtual assistants, digital education, media production and voice-enabled government services. The platform is available free of charge to individuals, institutions and developers.

‘BelMasry’ was first previewed in February 2026 at the AI Everything Middle East and Africa Summit in Cairo. The latest release marks the start of its public pilot through a dedicated platform.

The project forms part of Egypt’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy for 2025–2030, which includes plans to develop national AI models, expand Arabic-language datasets and increase data-centre and cloud capacity. The strategy targets training 30,000 AI specialists and raising AI’s contribution to GDP to 7.7% by 2030.