Saudi Arabia
This profile summarises the Key Insights arising from the completion of the Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM) for Saudi Arabia, provides context through the Country Landscape.
Saudi Arabia's RAM data and Country Report are publicly available and can be downloaded below.
Key Insights
Saudi Arabia has a unique data and AI authority that leads the Kingdom's data and AI strategy, policymaking, regulation, and enablement. However, the governance framework is still under development, which presents unique opportunities for shaping a robust regulatory environment. As governance structures evolve, there is potential to establish Saudi Arabia as a leader in AI ethics and compliance, drawing on global best practices to ensure that AI development benefits all segments of society.
The establishment of AI-specific regulatory sandboxes could accelerate innovation while managing risks. Such environments allow for the testing and refinement of AI technologies under regulatory supervision, providing valuable insights into effective governance mechanisms tailored to relevant sectors.
There is a critical need to address the talent gap in the AI sector to sustain growth and innovation. While Saudi Arabia is making strides in educational reform to boost AI and data science skills, more targeted initiatives are required to attract and retain high-quality, internationally competitive talent. In addition, upskilling of the public sector through adequate training is critical.
Educational systems must continue to adapt to prepare future generations for a world increasingly driven by AI. This involves not only integrating AI into curricula but also ensuring that ethical considerations and human-centric design principles are emphasised to students, while monitoring the quality of students’ hard skills.
Addressing the talent gap relies on empowering women to pursue careers in STEM fields, through early nurturing and appropriate inclusion programmes further down the road.
The maturity of the AI ecosystem in Saudi Arabia is a pivotal factor in its ability to compete on a global scale. Strengthening the ecosystem with a focus on nurturing local startups while attracting established AI companies will be crucial to driving innovation and maintaining technological leadership. This may be done by ensuring ecosystem-wide learning effects from KSA investments in startups abroad.
While improvements have been made to AI infrastructure, it is critical that momentum is kept ensuring unhindered development of the KSA AI ecosystem.
Sustainability must be a cornerstone of AI infrastructure development to ensure long-term viability. Developing guidelines and practices for sustainable AI can help mitigate environmental impacts and align with global efforts to promote responsible technology use while putting KSA on the map as a thought leader in sustainable AI.
The strategic deployment of government support and funding can catalyse the growth of the AI sector locally. Initiatives should be tailored to enhance the resources available to AI startups and research institutions, fostering a vibrant technological environment attracting leaders in the field, and aiming at tightly knit and cohesive ecosystem.
As a general principle, cross-pollination of ideas between the private and the public sector, and between international and local players should be sought as a critical objective on all fronts.
Country Landscape
AI systems shape and are shaped by a socio-technical landscape of institutions, geographies, and cultural contexts. Therefore, to better understand the environment of the design, development, and deployment of AI systems within countries, it is critical to view these processes with a lens towards the country as a whole.
The share of population with access to electricity is calculated by the World Bank and displayed by Our World in Data. The World Bank defines access to electricity as 'having an electricity source that can provide very basic lighting, and charge a phone or power a radio for 4 hours a day'. This data was last reported as 100% for Saudi Arabia in 2021.
The share of the population using the internet is compiled by the ITU.
Last documented in 2022, they reported 100% of the population using the internet in Saudi Arabia.
The World Bank scores countries on various statistical performance indicators including data infrastructure. This score 'measures the hard and soft infrastructure segments, itemizing essential cross-cutting requirements for an effective statistical system'. The score is based on a range of 0 to 100, with 100 representing the best score.