Architecting an AI-Fueled Business
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Overview
Saudi Arabia is in the midst of unprecedented national transformation, driven by ambitious Vision 2030 initiatives that aim to rapidly diversify the economy away from hydrocarbons. This has led to significant investments in giga projects such as NEOM, The Red Sea, Diriyah, and Roshn; mega sports events such as the Saudi Pro League, bids for the FIFA World Cup 2034 and the Winter Olympics 2030; and marquee global events such as World Expo 2030. In tandem, organizations in both the public and private sectors are undergoing transformation to upgrade their products, services, and operations to world-class levels.
Advanced technologies will underpin and enable these initiatives, leading to significant spending on applications, infrastructure, and cloud services. As the AI era unfolds, major investments are being made in AI and GenAI-enabled solutions including intelligence architecture, advanced big data analytics, next-gen intelligent automation, AIOps, and the convergence of AI with other technologies such as 5G connectivity, cloud, and IoT. Accordingly, IDC’s META Digital Executive Survey revealed that 52% of organizations in Saudi Arabia are already prioritizing AI investments for the next 12 months, highlighting the substantial impact of AI in the country.

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IDC Opening Keynote: Rethinking Digitalization for an AI-first World
As generative AI unleashes a new wave of disruption across industries, tech leaders are reviewing their approach to AI and its role in digitalization. The promise of significant impact on digital innovation, customer experience and operational efficiencies will drive progressive governments and digitally-determined organizations to take an AI-first approach. The concerns about data privacy and displacement of jobs and the demand for regulatory oversight remain, yet the need for competitive parity with early adopters will drive tech agendas.
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IDC CIO Excellence Awards
To compete and thrive in the new digital economy, progressive CIOs across the region are increasingly transforming their customer engagements, business operations, and operating models by leveraging digital technologies. They are rapidly adopting advanced technologies such as AI and leveraging cloud solutions to accelerate transformation. They are also supported by line-of-business leaders in delivering business transformation.
Through the IDC CIO Excellence Awards 2025, IDC intends to honor those organizations and IT leaders that have conceptualized and successfully delivered digital transformation initiatives that brought about tangible results.
At IDC, we pride ourselves on enforcing the very highest levels of transparency and impartiality. As such, each nomination will be reviewed and validated using a multi-tiered process.
Venue
Global influencers shared powerful stories of how they confronted challenges — and created opportunities from them

Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh
Kingdom Centre, Olaya St, Al Olaya, Riyadh 11321
Nestled in the heart of the city, the Four Seasons Hotel offers an unparalleled blend of elegance and comfort. Renowned for its impeccable service, world-class amenities, and sophisticated atmosphere, it provides the perfect setting for high-level discussions and transformative ideas.
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Analyst Spotlight The AI Everywhere Era in the Public Sector
AI and GenAI are having an increasingly pervasive impact on government — across missions, use cases, processes, and systems — in the Middle East and beyond. The disruptive impact of these technologies, compounded by geopolitical volatility, technical debt, digital sovereignty concerns, elevated citizen expectations, and regulatory changes, will require government leaders to approach innovation holistically. The acquisition and implementation of new technologies will not be enough. Realizing the benefits of AI, cloud, and industry platforms will require revisiting governance, risk management, culture, and the building of competencies to accelerate innovation.
Massimiliano Claps
IDC
Research Director
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Analyst Spotlight Enabling AI Outcomes with Cybersecurity
GenAI was coming. Predictive AI was coming. No . . . wait, it was already here. Anyway, we sit here today focused on the art and the genuineness of the possible.
As we consider and dream of the possible, we sometimes forget the reality of the now. Between the hype around GenAI and the COVID-19 pandemic before that, we sometimes fail to acknowledge that cybersecurity has grown up. Once the dominion of hoodie-wearing basement dwellers, the topic has elevated to the C-suite and beyond. Attacks from the cyberthreat landscape do not just present a technical risk — the ramifications create a risk to the organization itself. In essence, cyber risk equals business risk.
Frank Dickson
IDC
Group Vice President, Security & Trust
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CXO Spotlight AI in Defense: Automated Threat Detection
AI is changing the way we stay safe on the internet. One thing many companies and individuals have been using historically is a list of known threats, but the hackers would not stay still. They would rename the code, switch servers, and find gaps in our security — and I’ve seen too many companies get left behind. But what they have missed is that this is AI’s real power; machine learning can identify undesirable behavior before serious damage is done. For instance, if an account suddenly logs in at midnight or downloads files it never uses, we can immediately stop it and address the problem before the hackers get the company’s data or overrun the system.
Nasser AlGhamdi
Saudi Commission for Health Specialties
GM of Cybersecurity
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Partner Spotlight The Rse of AI Agents Signals the Growing Importance of Data Privacy
Data privacy is becoming increasingly complex and critical as organizations turn to AI to revamp their operations and processes. Among these advancements is agentic AI, designed to autonomously execute tasks without human intervention and act with agency.
For all its benefits, Agentic AI’s reliance on vast amounts of personally identifiable data raises significant privacy concerns and fuels growing consumer mistrust in how organizations manage personal information. According to a recent Cloudera Agentic AI survey, data privacy tops the concerns of respondents with 53% citing it as the main barrier. This has the potential to worsen when agentic AI hits the mainstream adoption phase in critical sectors like healthcare and financial services where personal data is prized at a premium.
Tariq Salameh
Cloudera
Senior Solutions Engineering Manager, META
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Partner Spotlight Rethinking Leadership for the Middle East’s AI-Powered Future
From hype to sustained impact, enterprises must blend human insight, ethical rigor, and agile culture to unlock AI’s true value.
Across the Gulf, sovereign visions and business ambitions have positioned AI as the next growth engine. Yet leadership teams discover that algorithms alone cannot redesign an organization; they simply expose its strengths and bottlenecks. Navigating this revolution therefore begins with organizational development — clarifying decision rights, shortening feedback loops, and empowering multidisciplinary squads that can learn as fast as models evolve.
Khalid Rabie
Vidscola
Head of Business Consultancy and Executive Coach and Trainer
Learn MoreStay tuned for exciting news!
Saudi Arabia’s transformation is redefining possibilities—from visionary mega projects to cutting-edge AI innovations. More breakthroughs and bold moves are on the way.
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