1 November 2023; Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – Microsoft Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella visited Saudi Arabia today to experience first-hand how the latest advancements in cloud and AI are supporting the Kingdom’s technology ecosystem of developers, startups, and organizations across every industry.
While speaking at the ‘Microsoft AI, a New Era’ event, Nadella met with local business leaders, government officials and developers and emphasized the role of AI in unlocking new opportunities to accelerate the Kingdom’s digital economy and transform the lives of its people.
“This next generation of AI will fundamentally transform productivity for individuals and spur innovation for businesses, and industries everywhere – including in Saudi Arabia,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “It’s great to see so many Saudi organizations across the public and private sector already applying this technology to drive innovation and create new economic opportunities.”.
Microsoft has had a presence in Saudi Arabia for more than 25 years. Ranked second among G20 nations and fourth globally in terms of digital systems preparedness, Saudi Arabia aims to establish a strong and advanced digital infrastructure that supports its Vision 2030.
At the event, His Excellency Eng. Abdullah Alswaha, Minister of Communications & Information Technology and Nadella discussed in a fireside chat how the latest advancements in AI can help advance a digital society, digital government, thriving digital economy and an innovative future for all.
His Excellency the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Abdullah Alswaha, welcomed the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, during his visit to Saudi Arabia. While participating at AI | A New Era, Alswaha praised the strategic partnership with Microsoft as a pillar of the Kingdom’s innovative future.
Alswaha stressed during his discussion with Mr Nadella that Microsoft is a crucial partner as the Kingdom strengthens its position as a regional centre for connectivity, technology and innovation. He pointed to their collaboration in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, innovative solutions, and software development.
Minister Alswaha also highlighted the partnership between the Saudi Basic Industry Corporation and Microsoft as an example of how technology can support sustainability. The two companies are recycling plastic found in the ocean and then using it to produce electronic devices.
In his keynote address, Nadella highlighted some of the ways Saudi Arabian innovation is already transforming the lives of people locally and globally. King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, one of the top hospitals in the Middle East, is trialing AI clinical documentation features in Nuance DAX. The speech-to-text solution is three times faster than typing and is helping clinicians at King Faisal Hospital to increase their productivity, reduce documentation errors, and spend more time with patients.
Nadella also met with Saudi organizations that showcased how they are leading AI transformation and innovation in key industries, including:
- Saudi Airlines which is using Azure OpenAI GPT-4 to build “Saudia”, a new AI travel companion that provides personalized travel experiences and help, from destination recommendations to booking and baggage purchases. When it launches later this year, it will be the region’s first airline to launch an AI travel companion. For more details, read How a Saudi airline is making travel easier and smoother with AI and low-code tools
- ACWA Power is using Azure AI, as well as the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform, to increase the health and safety of its employees and optimize the desalination chemicals blend to deliver the highest global standards of water for their customers.
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- The Ministry of Health, which receives up to 20,000 calls per day through its call center, is harnessing the power of Azure AI to accelerate online medical consultation, escalate critical cases, and automate AI diagnosis reports and summarization for medium-low cases. The Ministry is also using AI-powered text analytics to extract medical codes from millions of physical documents.
- TECH, Sindbad.Tech is a Robo-Trader FinTech company that provides auto trading bots (SaaS) in the financial markets. The technology uses Azure cloud to (optimize prices with high scalability and availability), AI to (predict opportunities), big data to (determine the market status and protect the capital from a down market), and relies on automation to (prevent human mistakes and fast to market), enabling retail investors to generate profit and reach financial freedom in an easy way, without transferring any funds to Sindbad.Tech and that’s a game-changer.
To learn more about Nadella’s visit and the ways many businesses are driving innovation with AI, visit https://news.microsoft.com/saudi-arabia-visit-2023/.
