Written by Rahim Hirji, author of SuperSkills (Kogan Page, 2026), founder of The SuperSkills Intelligence Company. The research is published openly with every source graded. Found an error? Tell me and it is corrected on the page.
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Available in RiyadhRiyadh is where the Kingdom writes the rules. Of every Gulf AI instrument read for this research, Saudi Arabia's is the one that names over-reliance as a design defect, and the Kingdom is the only one publishing an official adoption figure.
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SDAIA’s AI Ethics Principles, version 1.0 of September 2023, carries an assessment checklist covering the system lifecycle. At the plan and design stage it asks: Does your AI system design prevent overconfidence in or overreliance on the AI system with necessary human intervention mechanisms? That is the argument of these keynotes, written into a national governance document.
Three qualifications travel with the quote. The over-reliance language sits in a checklist annexe rather than in the principle text. The instrument is guidance, not statute: the Kingdom had no binding AI law as of August 2026, only a draft responsible AI policy put out for consultation on 2 April 2026. And version 1.0 dates from September 2023, so whether the language survives into a later version is not something this research can confirm.
The General Authority for Statistics reports 33.1 per cent of establishments using AI technologies, up 20.0 per cent on 2024, with information and communication at 61.1 per cent, financial and insurance at 52.9 per cent and education at 51.0 per cent. The methodology is stated as aligned with UNCTAD standards.
Two things about that number matter more than the number. The companion household survey for the same year contains no AI indicator at all, so the Kingdom measures firms and leaves citizens unmeasured. And neither the UAE nor Qatar publishes any official AI statistic whatever, so every adoption percentage quoted for those markets is vendor-produced.
Saudi Arabia is also the one Gulf state where training throughput can be tracked against a stated national target. The SAMAI programme passed one million citizens trained in November 2025 on the Ministry of Education’s own figures, of whom 52 per cent were women and 70 per cent already employed. By June 2026 the state news agency reported 1,563,983 beneficiaries including 14,495 specialists and experts.
The point worth putting to a room in Riyadh is that a throughput figure measures delivery. Whether a person could still do the work unaided is a different measurement, and nobody in the Gulf is taking it. The method is at how you assess capability rather than output, and the full regional picture at AI and work in the Gulf.
Rahim Hirji is a London-based keynote speaker on AI, work and human judgement, and the author of SuperSkills (Kogan Page, 2026). He travels from London to Riyadh and across Saudi Arabia for boards, executive teams and conferences. His argument is that AI comes for judgement before it comes for jobs.
No. All keynotes are delivered in English only. This page carries a substantial Arabic section because the reader may read Arabic, not because the keynote is delivered in it.
SDAIA's AI Ethics Principles, version 1.0 of September 2023, ask in the plan and design checklist whether the system design prevents overconfidence in or overreliance on the AI system with necessary human intervention mechanisms. Saudi Arabia is the only Gulf state among those reviewed here that names over-reliance as a design defect. The instrument is guidance rather than statute, and the language sits in a checklist annexe rather than the principle text.
Three to six months ahead for an in-person date in Riyadh. Shorter is often possible for a virtual session, and sometimes in person where the diary is free and the talk already exists in the form you need. Ask earlier rather than later. There is one of him, he carries advisory clients and other commitments alongside the speaking, so not every date can be taken.
Fees are not published, and not withheld to create a negotiation. What they depend on is whether the talk already exists in the form you want or has to be built for your audience, and how much preparation the brief implies. Tell us the room, the date, the audience and what you need them to do differently, and you will get a number quickly. Schools, universities and charities are quoted differently. On travel there is one rule: outside London you book it and you pay it, because your rates are better than his and nobody is out of pocket waiting on a reimbursement. From London Heathrow to Riyadh that falls in the five to eight hour band, so an economy plus fare, arrival the night before, and normally two nights in a standard room at or near the venue. A London booking carries no travel, accommodation or expenses at all.
When the decision has already been made and the session exists to announce it. When the audience has no authority over their own work, because the talk asks them to decide which repetitions are worth keeping. When the slot runs under twenty-five minutes, because the turn needs setting up. And when the session follows a vendor pitch, since order matters more than programmes usually assume. Where the conditions are wrong we will say so, and sometimes that means reshaping the session. Occasionally it means recommending somebody else.
وضعت الهيئة السعودية للبيانات والذكاء الاصطناعي (سدايا) في مبادئ أخلاقيات الذكاء الاصطناعي سؤالاً لا يوجد له نظير في أي وثيقة أخرى في المنطقة، ضمن قائمة التقييم في مرحلة التخطيط والتصميم:
«هل يمنع تصميم نظام الذكاء الاصطناعي لديكم الثقة المفرطة به أو الاعتماد المفرط عليه، مع توفير آليات التدخل البشري اللازمة؟»
هذا هو جوهر الحجة التي تقوم عليها هذه المحاضرات، مكتوباً في وثيقة حوكمة وطنية. وبحسب ما تم التحقق منه، فإن المملكة هي الدولة الخليجية الوحيدة التي تسمّي الاعتماد المفرط بوصفه عيباً في التصميم.
المملكة أيضاً هي الوحيدة خليجياً التي تنشر إحصاءً رسمياً عن تبنّي الذكاء الاصطناعي: 33.1 بالمئة من المنشآت بحسب الهيئة العامة للإحصاء لعام 2025. وتجاوزت مبادرة «سماي» مليون متدرّب في نوفمبر 2025، من بينهم 14,495 متخصصاً وخبيراً بحلول يونيو 2026.
الملاحظة الجديرة بالنقاش في القاعة: التدريب يقيس الإنجاز، لا القدرة. الاختبار الحقيقي هو ما إذا كان الشخص لا يزال قادراً على أداء العمل دون مساعدة. ملاحظة مهمة: يقدّم رحيم جميع محاضراته باللغة الإنجليزية فقط. التفاصيل الكاملة في الذكاء الاصطناعي والعمل في الخليج.
Written by Rahim Hirji, author of SuperSkills (Kogan Page, 2026), founder of The SuperSkills Intelligence Company. The research is published openly with every source graded. Found an error? Tell me and it is corrected on the page.
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Part of speaking across the Gulf. See also Jeddah and Dubai. Browse every topic, audience and region. دليل المتحدثين بالعربية.
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