AI in Saudi Arabia in 2026: the agencies, models and regulations

AI in Saudi Arabia in 2026 runs through a small set of players. SDAIA leads the national strategy and writes most of the AI rules, PIF's company HUMAIN builds data centres and Arabic models, and SDAIA trains citizens with two ministries through SAMAI. Most AI-specific rules are guidance; the Personal Data Protection Law is the binding layer.

This guide maps who does what, which Saudi models and infrastructure exist, and which rules apply to a company using AI as of 14 October 2026. Every figure comes from an official Saudi source, and where that source quotes an international index, we say so. For the practical side of the national AI year, and for the national AI training program, see the related sections below.

AI in Saudi Arabia at a glance (October 2026)

On 10 March 2026 the Council of Ministers designated 2026 the Year of Artificial Intelligence in the Kingdom [1]. The figures below are the ones SDAIA and the Saudi Press Agency publish. Most are attributed by them to international indices and research firms, so read them as the government's own summary of the sector.

Who does what: the agencies and companies behind Saudi AI

SDAIA was established in 2019 and leads the National Strategy for Data and AI, built on six pillars: ambition, competencies, policies, investment, innovation and ecosystem [2]. SDAIA describes itself as the national reference for the regulation, development and management of data and AI [5]. Around it, a handful of other bodies carry specific parts of the work.

Two governance points matter for a business. SDAIA's AI Ethics Principles let it measure compliance directly or through sector regulators, so a bank or a hospital may also hear about AI from its own regulator [9]. And SDAIA itself received ISO 42001:2023 certification, the international standard for AI management systems, in 2024 [5].

Saudi AI models: ALLaM, HUMAIN Chat and newer releases

The Saudi language model that official sources cite most is ALLaM. SDAIA's Year of AI page states that more than 500 billion Arabic tokens were used to develop the ALLaM 34B language model [1]. A Saudi Press Agency report on PIF's AI strategy, published on 15 September 2026, describes ALLaM as built entirely in the Kingdom by Saudi experts and as the model that powers the HUMAIN Chat app [10].

HUMAIN Chat is a free app. Its App Store listing says it runs on ALLaM 34B, chats in Arabic or English, recognises speech in Arabic dialects from the Gulf to the Maghreb, and is fully hosted and operated in Saudi Arabia [11]. For a company, the last point is the one to note, because where a model is hosted is one of the first things to check in any assistant's terms.

HUMAIN has also released a newer model, HUMAIN M3, in limited preview on its HUMAIN Node platform. HUMAIN describes it as an Arabic-focused, natively multimodal model; access requires approval, and the benchmark results on the page are HUMAIN's own [12]. Treat vendor benchmarks as a starting point and test any model on your own Arabic documents.

SDAIA also cites the Stanford AI Index 2025, which places Saudi Arabia third globally, and first in the Arab region, in the development of leading AI models, with five such models developed in the Kingdom [1].

Infrastructure: data centres, compute and cloud regions

The infrastructure claims on SDAIA's Year of AI page are specific [1]:

• Hexagon data centre: described as the world's largest government data centre with a Tier IV classification and a total planned capacity of 480 megawatts.
• Shaheen III: KAUST's supercomputer, the most powerful in the GCC according to SDAIA.
• Cloud regions: nine cloud regions in Saudi Arabia, four of them still under development by global providers, according to TeleGeography's 2025 map.
• Data centre growth: total data centre capacity rose 42.4% between 2023 and 2024, according to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
• Government data: more than 440 government systems are integrated into the National Data Lake.

PIF's launch statement adds that HUMAIN will streamline data centre initiatives, procure hardware and serve sectors such as energy, healthcare, manufacturing and financial services [7]. For a company choosing where to run AI, the growth in local cloud regions matters more than any single facility: it widens the options for keeping data in the Kingdom.

The rules: Saudi Arabia's AI regulations as of October 2026

There is no standalone AI law on SDAIA's regulations page as of 14 October 2026 [6]. The binding layer for most AI uses is the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) with its implementing regulation and its regulation on transferring personal data outside the Kingdom, all listed on that page [6]. On top of it sits a set of AI-specific documents, most of them guidance.

The draft Responsible AI Policy is the one to watch. SDAIA put it to public consultation on the Istitlaa platform on 2 April 2026 [15], and its regulations page did not list a final version when we checked on 14 October 2026 [6]. A final text could add obligations that the current guidance only recommends.

Our guides cover two of these documents in depth: the SDAIA AI Adoption Framework, with a readiness assessment and a risk-scoring example, and data residency in Saudi Arabia under the PDPL. This section is general information; for a specific case, check SDAIA's current texts or ask a licensed advisor.

Programs for people and companies

Three national programs reach companies directly.

• SAMAI. SDAIA launched the "One Million Saudis in AI" initiative with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. On 9 November 2025 the Saudi Press Agency reported that it had trained more than one million citizens, with free access and certificates from SDAIA [8].
• The Year of AI 2026. SDAIA runs the year's official page, with its objectives, national AI figures and brand guidelines for participating entities [1].
• Support for companies adopting AI. In its summary of the IMD 2026 results, SDAIA named the Rowad Package, the AI Ethics Incentive Badges and the Generative AI Accelerator (GAIA) among its initiatives that help companies adopt AI [3]. The release does not describe their terms; check SDAIA's channels before you plan around them.

How to read Saudi Arabia's AI rankings

The rankings are real signals, but they measure the country, not your company. IMD's 2026 yearbook, as summarised by SDAIA, placed Saudi Arabia fourth globally for AI adoption by companies, fourth for societal access to AI, fifth for AI trust, fifth for corporate investment in AI and seventh for AI skills in business [3]. The World Bank's 2026 report placed it among the top 10 for private AI investment and among the economies with the highest net inflows of AI professionals in 2025 [4].

For a business, these numbers suggest two things. AI governance is now part of how the Kingdom presents itself, so expect larger buyers, especially government entities, to ask suppliers about it. And with AI professionals moving into the Kingdom, competition for that talent is real, so training your own staff is often the more realistic route.

What this landscape means for your company in 2026

Use this checklist as-is to place your company's AI use within the Saudi framework.

1. List your AI systems. For each one, write its owner, its purpose, the data it uses and who is affected by its output.
2. Mark the personal data. Anything touching names, IDs, salaries or customer records falls under the PDPL, wherever the tool is hosted.
3. Place each system on SDAIA's risk levels. Use the AI Ethics Principles' four levels, and the national risk framework's matrix for anything that affects people's rights.
4. Check synthetic media. If you generate voices, faces or video of real people, apply the Deepfakes Guidelines: consent first, and mark the content.
5. Test a local option for Arabic-heavy work. Run the same Arabic samples through a Saudi-hosted assistant and through your current tools, and compare the edits each output needs.
6. Train before you buy. Point staff to SAMAI's free Arabic programs before paying for advanced tools.
7. Watch for the final Responsible AI Policy. Check SDAIA's regulations page each quarter and update your AI register when it changes.

If you are still deciding where AI fits at all, our guide on how AI can help your business starts with one repetitive task.

Your next step

This week, write down every AI tool your company uses and mark which ones touch personal data. That one page shows which part of the Saudi rule set applies to you, and it is the base for everything else in this guide. Then check the AI in Saudi Arabia sources above once a quarter, since the final Responsible AI Policy is still pending. To read about O AI, a software and AI company in Al Khobar, visit our home page.