Saudi Arabia’s national artificial intelligence training programme, SAMAI, has successfully trained over one million Saudi citizens, marking a significant milestone in the Kingdom’s journey towards digital transformation. The initiative was developed by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development.
The achievement was celebrated at a gala event at the Ministry of Education in Riyadh, attended by key officials including H.E. Yousef Al-Bunyan, Minister of Education, and Dr. Abdullah Al-Ghamdi, President of SDAIA. First announced at a previous Global AI Summit (GAIN), the “One Million Saudis in AI” (SAMAI) initiative has become the largest AI upskilling programme ever undertaken in the nation.
A National Push for AI Literacy
The SAMAI programme was designed with a whole-of-society approach, targeting citizens across all age groups and professional backgrounds rather than focusing solely on technical specialists. This inclusive strategy is reflected in its demographics.
Of the more than one million participants, 52 percent were women and 48 percent were men. The programme also saw strong participation from the existing workforce, with employees constituting 70 percent of the total trainees, while students made up the remaining 30 percent.
Strategic Alignment with Vision 2030
The initiative is a core component of Saudi Arabia’s National Strategy for Data and AI (NSDAI), which was launched in 2020. A key pillar of the NSDAI is the transformation of the Saudi workforce through talent development and the integration of AI education to meet modern labour market demands.
By building critical AI capabilities across a significant portion of the population, SAMAI directly supports the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 objectives to strengthen national competitiveness and establish Saudi Arabia as a global leader in artificial intelligence.
Building on a Track Record of Success
The success of SAMAI builds on SDAIA’s impressive history in AI education. Since its establishment in 2019, the authority has trained nearly 800,000 citizens in data and AI through various programmes.
One notable prior initiative was the National Olympiad for Programming and AI (ATHKA), where SDAIA trained more than 570,000 students on fundamental AI concepts, with 260,000 students from 10,000 schools ultimately participating in the competition. These large-scale education programmes signal the accelerating momentum of the Kingdom’s national AI strategy.
About SAMAI
The “One Million Saudis in AI” (SAMAI) is a national training initiative developed by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) in partnership with government ministries. Its core objectives are to raise public awareness of AI, support lifelong learning opportunities, and align the national workforce with the growing labour market demands for AI skills, thereby supporting the goals of Saudi Vision 2030.
Source: middleeastainews
