Saudi Arabia rolls out national strategy for data, artificial intelligence

The Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence (SDAIA) launched a national strategy for data and artificial intelligence (NSDAI), through which the Kingdom will play a pivotal role in mapping out the future of data and AI locally and worldwide.

The new strategy was rolled out on the inaugural day of the Global AI Summit held virtually on Oct. 21-22. It comes as part of Saudi Arabia's efforts to empower the public and private programs and sectors across various fields, to achieve Vision 2030.

Abdullah Alghamdi, President of SDAIA, said that NSDAI will focus on addressing the pressing national priorities and trends in data and AI until 2030, especially in education, health, the public sector, transportation, and energy.

The new strategy is focused on six dimensions, namely strengthening Saudi Arabia's position as a global hub for data and AI technologies; developing the country's workforce through building a sustainable resource for local competencies; forming a more encouraging legislative environment for companies and talents; enabling expert research firms in data and AI to lead innovation and maximize its impact; and finally motivating the adoption of data and AI technologies through well-equipped systems.

He added that the strategy also targets achieving several national objectives until 2030, mainly placing the Kingdom among the top 15 countries in AI, and also among the top 10 countries in open data to rank among the top 20 countries in contributing to research papers.

Alghamdi also noted that the national strategy targets to attract SAR 75 billion worth of investments in data and AI, and boost entrepreneurship through creating more than 300 startups in data and AI field.