Yango Group’s AI assistant Yasmina and autonomous delivery robot will take part in the Dubai Mallathon experience. 

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An AI assistant will have an unusual job this month, talking to runners during a race inside a Dubai shopping mall. Yango Group is bringing its AI assistant Yasmina and an autonomous delivery robot to Dubai Mallathon at Dubai Festival City Mall on 22 August, where Yasmina will interact with runners during the 2.5 km, 5 km and 10 km races.  

Yasmina will join a professional coach for the warmup before taking on a race day role. During the runs, the assistant will provide encouragement, pacing and hydration reminders, as well as running and wellbeing tips, information about exercise and the human body. 

The autonomous robot will be distributing water to participants and present medals to race winners, putting the technology into another part of the event rather than simply displaying it to visitors. 

For Yango, that makes Mallathon a way to bring two different technologies into the same public setting. Yasmina is usually used through Yango's smart speakers, while the autonomous robot is being developed for last mile delivery.  

"Instead of demonstrating AI in a conference hall, we’re bringing it into a real community setting where thousands of people can interact with it naturally. Dubai Mallathon gives us the opportunity to demonstrate that AI isn't confined to screens or workplaces; it can also enrich public events and become part of everyday life. With Yango Yasmina and our autonomous delivery robot, we're showcasing practical innovations that support Dubai's vision for a smarter, more connected future,” said Islam Abdul Karim, Regional Head at Yango Group Middle East. 

From Consumer AI to Physical Environments 

Yasmina is built into Yango's smart speakers and is designed to handle conversations, entertainment, reminders and smart home controls. The assistant supports English and Arabic, including White Khaleeji and Egyptian. At Mallathon, those capabilities will be used in a very different setting. Runners will hear Yasmina while taking part in the race, with the assistant providing information and prompts without requiring them to stop and interact with a device. 

Yango is developing autonomous delivery technology for last mile services in Dubai, with its robots using cameras and AI-powered perception to identify obstacles and navigate their surroundings. 

The Mallathon is relatively simple compared with commercial delivery, but the environment is different from a controlled product demonstration. The robot will have to move around participants and other activity at the venue while carrying out its assigned tasks. That is part of what makes the event relevant to Yango's wider technology work. The company is putting its consumer facing AI and autonomous systems into a place where people are already moving, talking and going about an activity, rather than asking them to engage with the technology separately. 

The 2025 edition attracted more than 40,000 participants across nine shopping centres, while 1,392 runners at Dubai Hills Mall set a Guinness World Record for the most runners in a mall run event. For 2026, the event has been expanded into a three-month programme running from 15 June to 15 September, with Dubai Festival City Mall among the participating venues. The programme is designed around indoor walking and running during the summer, when outdoor activity in Dubai can be difficult. 

The first three race winners will each receive a Yango Yasmina AI speaker, and participants will also have an opportunity to interact with Yango's AI speakers during the event. 

For Yango, Mallathon gives the activation a large audience and instead of asking people to come and see a technology demonstration, the technology becomes part of something they were already planning to do.  

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