Saudi Arabia: The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) signed an agreement with the American multinational computer company Dell Technologies, combining the two organizations’ expertise in emerging technologies to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Kingdom.

As Saudi Arabia aims to diversify its economy away from oil under Saudi Vision 2030, it is stepping up efforts to drive innovation and the use of AI. As part of this agreement, SDAIA will be provided with consulting services that will help them leverage solutions within AI, cloud, data analytics and enterprise storage, as part of the Kingdom’s digital transformation.

“This strategic collaboration will also witness an exchange of industry best practices and expertise needed to develop integrated projects that will serve the needs of public sector entities’ technology across Saudi Arabia,” SDAIA and Dell said in a joint statement.

The agreement was signed last week during GITEX Technology Week 2020 in Dubai between Dr. Esam Al-Wagait, director of Saudi Arabia’s National Information Center (NIC), and Mohammed Amin, senior vice president of  Dell’s Middle East wing.

Saudi Arabia has undertaken a series of initiatives to support its ongoing socio-economic transformation and modernization strategy. The National Strategy for Data and Artificial Intelligence (NSDAI) said recently that it is looking to attract some $20 billion in foreign and local investments by 2030.