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Applied AI in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia's AI record runs through water, oil and food — an AI platform across the water value chain, hybrid AI in Aramco's refinery planning — under the National Strategy for Data and AI launched in 2020.

AI readiness
0.58
Rank 48 of 171 — IMF AI Preparedness Index
On the record
4
entries across 3 industries
National programme
2020
National Strategy for Data and AI (NSDAI)
National programme

National Strategy for Data and AI (NSDAI)

Announced 2020. Its pillars are ambition, skills, policy and regulation, investment, research and innovation, ecosystem.

Services 48.9% · Industry 43% · Agriculture 2.6% of gross value added — World Bank, 2025

Kind
Role
4 entries

Manufacturing, Energy & Resources

2

Aramco plans its refineries with hybrid AI models.

DeploymentManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesSaudi Arabia28 Apr 2026

Aramco deploys hybrid AI models in refinery planning with Emerson

Aramco — Aramco has plugged Emerson's AI-driven Aspen Hybrid Models into its refinery planning, which Emerson calls among the largest multi-site, multi-period optimisation models anywhere. In Continuous Catalyst Regeneration and Platformer units, this AI refinery planning supports feedstock blending and margin forecasting, with yield and quality predictions up to 98.5% accurate in key units, per Emerson. Aramco says the hybrid models cut engineers' manual adjustments, and hydrocracker units come next.

Refinery planning engineeremerson.com
DeploymentManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesSaudi Arabia3 Feb 2026

Saudi Water Authority launches AI platform across the water value chain

Saudi Water Authority — The Saudi Water Authority and IBM have launched the H2O Platform, generative AI and hybrid cloud for AI water management across over 40 use cases in the Kingdom's water value chain. The water-resource AI offers live monitoring, trend spotting and predictive insight, per IBM, and a Consumer Assistant gives the public water services, consumption tracking and conservation tips.

Water resource managertradearabia.com

Agriculture & Food

1

First Mills runs AI agents across its four flour mills.

DeploymentAgriculture & FoodSaudi Arabia14 Apr 2026

First Mills rolls out AI agents across its four flour mills

First Mills — First Mills, a leading Saudi Arabian flour miller, has started running Kodamai's Kelvingrove AI agents in food production across its four facilities. The agent platform tracks procurement signals, supplier coordination and stock levels live, aiming for quicker decisions and clearer production visibility.

Procurement and supply-chain plannermillingmea.com

Government & Public Sector

1

SDAIA has issued a national framework for managing AI risk.

RegulationGovernment & Public SectorSaudi Arabia14 Jul 2026

Saudi Arabia issues a national framework for managing AI risks

Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) — The Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) has launched the National Framework for AI Risk Management in Riyadh, for government and private bodies. It sets a national method to identify, assess, treat and monitor AI-system risks, which SDAIA says differ from ordinary software because behaviour may shift in use and outputs resist explanation or reproduction. The framework is non-binding guidance.

ajel.sa
Latest on the record
    Middle East & North Africa
    Saudi Arabia0.58United Arab Emirates0.63Turkey0.54Israel0.73Lebanon—Qatar0.53Syria—Egypt0.39Morocco0.43Jordan0.48Yemen—Algeria—Iraq0.27Kuwait0.46Oman0.53
    Method and sources

    Every entry on this page is a named organisation putting AI to work in a real job, taken from the State of Applied AI record. Each one is traced to the report it came from and dated, and where a figure is the organisation’s own the entry says so rather than presenting it as an independent result. Readiness, ecosystem and policy figures, where shown, are attributed on the card to the body that published them.

    The record is maintained continuously by the Industrial Research Unit of the Straits Institute for Applied AI: entries are added as they are found and verified, not on a schedule, and nothing is published without an open source behind it. It currently holds 1114 entries across 249 countries.