{"id":41518,"date":"2019-09-18T09:54:59","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T08:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/?p=41518"},"modified":"2019-09-24T10:21:40","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T09:21:40","slug":"saudi-arabia-joins-the-global-race-to-ai-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/2019\/09\/18\/saudi-arabia-joins-the-global-race-to-ai-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia joins the global race to AI Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em><strong>Saudi Arabia contributed to the global conversation on Artificial Intelligence when top AI experts convened at <\/strong><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/riyadh.worldaishow.com\"><em><strong>World AI &amp; RPA Show<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em><strong> in Riyadh to discuss the nation\u2019s AI adoption strategies under the ambitious Vision 2030 reform programme. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Saudi\nArabia is taking its economy to the next level by channelling a major part of\ninvestments into emerging technologies through its PIF (Public Investment\nFund). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Majority\nof CEOs in Saudi Arabia are seeing the favourable impact that AI, Robotics and\nIntelligent and Cognitive Automation can bring to Saudi\u2019s economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a\npart of its Vision 2030 plan, the country has earmarked billions of dollars in AI-based\ntechnologies, making it one of the main pillars of its economic development\nstrategy. According to a global study conducted by PWC in 2017, AI could\ncontribute to US$135 billion (12.4%) to Saudi Arabia\u2019s GDP by the year 2030\nthat is the second-highest share in the region after the UAE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nline with Saudi Arabia\u2019s ambitious Vision 2030 reform programme, the 10<sup>th<\/sup>\nglobal edition of the internationally acclaimed AI conference, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldaishow.com\/\"><strong>World\nAI &amp; RPA Show<\/strong><\/a> was held in Riyadh on Monday\nand Tuesday where regional and global AI experts convened to contribute to the global\nconversation on AI. The conference was organised by <a href=\"https:\/\/alagatksa.com\/en\/\">Alagat<\/a> in\ncollaboration with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tresconglobal.com\/\">Trescon<\/a> and with\nthe support of <a href=\"\/Users\/Mark%20Bowen\/AppData\/Local\/Microsoft\/Windows\/INetCache\/Content.Outlook\/I5916WAX\/arabrobotics.org\/Home\">Arab\nRobotics &amp; AI Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\ntheme for the two-day global conference was specifically designed to give\nmomentum to the Vision 2030 roadmap which explicitly spells out Saudi Arabia\u2019s attempt\nto diversify its economy by maximising its investment capabilities in\ninnovation and technology. The opening day focused on discussions from Saudi\u2019s top\ngovernment authorities, and decision-makers from global enterprises on why Digital\nTransformation is critical to achieving Vision 2030 and how AI and automation\ncan play a vital role. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\nare some high-level takeaways from the two-day conference:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Abdulmajeed Alomrani,\nInnovation Director, Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority (Monshaat),\npointed out the Thakaa Center\u2019s goal of contributing to large scale AI adoption\nin the region by increasing the SME contribution from 20% to 35% by 2030. He\nsaid: \u201cWe are hoping to generate more\nthan 20 start-ups yearly. We are also helping SMEs with the adoption of AI and\ndata analysis, and different sectors by launching multiple Hackathons and AI\nBootcamps.\u201d<\/li><li>Mohammed Alsobay, Senior Data\nScientist at Mozn, gave a tech talk on why AI-powered cybersecurity is critical\nfor organisations today. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>He\nnoted: \u201cThe emergence of e\u2013banking and growth in digital channels are\nincreasing the problem of fraud and cybercrime creating more avenues for\nattacks. It\u2019s only going to get worse, where it is easy to scale attacks. However,\nthe growth of data and the capacity for analysis is an equal match to address\nthis concern.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Faisal Alrashoudi, VP &#8211; Head\nof Digitalisation and Automation, Bank Aljazira, Saudi Arabia; Kamran Ahmed, Assistant\nGeneral Manager, Samba Financial Group, Saudi Arabia and Hilel Baroud, Director\nof Pre-Sales MEA, UiPath, UAE, were part of a panel discussion which was\nmoderated by Jalal S. Alowibdi, Chief Data Officer, University of Jeddah, Saudi\nArabia. The focal point of discussion was how AI, ML and RPA is radically\nimproving functions within the finance industry.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRPA is allowing you to have a platform to\nintegrate AI technologies into your automation within your organisation,\u201d said\nHilel Baroud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\nadded that the future will be all about customer experience, customer\ninteraction and automating whatever humans are not good at and that we will\nhave collaborative interactions between humans and robots and AI brains\ncohesively working together to produce a better environment and services to\ncustomers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>On day two, a panel of highly\nexperienced investors that included, Hussein Attar, Investment Manager, Tech\nInvest Com; Lewa Abukhait, Chief Investment Officer, DAAL Saudi Arabia and Sir\nAnthony Ritossa, Chairman, Ritossa Family Office, UAE, offered insights on the\nstriking trends in Saudi Arabia\u2019s start-up ecosystem.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Lewa\nAbukhait said: \u201cSaudi Arabia is one of the few countries in the world where you\ncan find potential for scale, given its mass-market and purchasing power within\nthe community. The Saudi Arabian ecosystem provides the right platforms to\nidentify real problems and the latest AI potential solutions at a scalable\nmodel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the\nRPA market embraces an explosive growth globally, <a href=\"https:\/\/riyadh.worldaishow.com\/\">World AI &amp; RPA Show<\/a>\nsaw an active participation from top implementers and solution providers such\nas Automation Anywhere and Master Works; UiPath and Xocialive, Appian and\nDarktrace that assessed RPA in their businesses, ground-level applications,\nuse-cases and how the shift to automation technology is crucial to Saudi\nArabia\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conference\nPartners of<strong> World AI &amp; RPA Show<\/strong>\nincluded: <strong>Platinum Partners<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/digazu.com\/\">digazu<\/a>;\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.master-works.net\/mw\/\">Master\nWorks<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.automationanywhere.com\/\">Automation Anywhere<\/a>;\n<a href=\"https:\/\/mozn.sa\/\">Mozn<\/a>; <strong>Gold Partners<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.appian.com\/\">Appian Corporation<\/a>,\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.darktrace.com\/en\/\">Darktrace<\/a>,\n<strong>Telecom Partner<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zain.com\/en\/\">Zain<\/a>; <strong>RPA Partners<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uipath.com\/\">UiPath<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/xocialive.com\/\">Xocialive<\/a>\n<strong>Bronze Partners, <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/datasemantics.co\/\">Data Semantics<\/a>;\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.exceeders.com\/\">Exceeders<\/a>\nand <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qlik.com\/us\">Qlik<\/a>;\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.labiba.ai\/\">Labiba\nfor Artificial Intelligence LLC<\/a>;\n<strong>Ecosystem\nPartner: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.monshaat.gov.sa\/ar\">Monsha\u2019at<\/a>;\n<strong>Innovation Partner<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biginnovationcentre.com\/\">Big\nInnovation Centre<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Exhibitors\ninclude<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/ad-lib.io\/\">Ad-Lib Digital<\/a>;\n<a href=\"http:\/\/aidirections.com\/\">AIDirections<\/a>;\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.3dpars.com\/\">3D\nPARS<\/a> and\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nuummite.com\/\">Nuummite<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saudi Arabia contributed to the global conversation on Artificial Intelligence when top AI experts convened at World AI &amp; RPA Show in Riyadh to discuss the nation\u2019s AI adoption strategies under the ambitious Vision 2030 reform programme. Saudi Arabia is taking its economy to the next level by channelling a major part of investments into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":41519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[809,3629,78,791,79],"tags":[10230,3211,790,811,913,277,2973,10229],"class_list":["post-41518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-more-news","category-newsletter","category-regional-news-newsletter","category-ksa","category-used","tag-abdulmajeed-alomrani","tag-ai","tag-ksa","tag-riyadh","tag-robotics","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-vision-2030","tag-world-ai-and-rpa-show"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41518"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41526,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41518\/revisions\/41526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}