On Friday, King Salman of Saudi Arabia issued a royal decree to establish a National Centre for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in KSA to drive innovation and the digital transformation of the country, as declared by Abdullah Al-Sawaha from the Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology.
In addition to the AI centre, Abdullah Al-Sawaha also declared that the decree would establish a National Data Management Office in the country, which will be closely linked with the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority.
Artificial intelligence is on the agenda for many countries around the world as it has the potential to improve security as well as business processes across sectors. As KSA aims to move away from its dependency on oil, it is taking a number of steps to ensure a more sustainable economic future. AI is part of that strategy and Vision 2030.
Al-Sawaha also revealed that the KSA Vision 2030 lays out objectives to improve and develop performance efficiency with the help of AI and big data. This move is in line with those objectives and indicates the country's determination to strengthen its digital capabilities through welcoming AI.
In addition to boosting productivity and better decision-making processes across sectors, Al-Sawaha also said that citizens would benefit from better AI-enabled services as well as drive entrepreneurship in the sector amongst the country's young population.
Furthermore, King Salman also issued other decrees to drive growth of the Kingdom, including the creation of a new Ministry for Industrly and Mineral Resources.
