Data is the new oil — but who is refining it for Vision 2030?

Gary Ng

September 04, 2025 23:52

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Gary Ng

September 04, 2025 23:52

Data is the new oil — but who is refining it for Vision 2030?

Gary Ng

September 04, 2025 23:52

Data is the new oil — but who is refining it for Vision 2030?

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https://arab.news/5f3k3

For decades, oil has been Saudi Arabia’s most valuable asset. But as the Kingdom fast-tracks its Vision 2030 goals, a new resource is emerging at the heart of transformation — data.

Raw data, much like crude oil, needs to be refined, processed and leveraged strategically to yield insights. That is where artificial intelligence steps in; not simply as a tool, but as the refiner, architect and the engine of Saudi Arabia’s post-oil future.

Oil market volatility has long dictated Saudi Arabia’s economic fortunes. But the uncertainty surrounding global oil demand, price fluctuations and intensifying climate pressures have rendered this model precarious.

Oil prices recently plummeted to $60 per barrel, well below the $90 per barrel needed to balance the Saudi budget, and the Kingdom is feeling the pinch. This has prompted Saudi Aramco to explore asset sales and slash dividend payouts to manage declining revenues.

This situation highlights the financial strain caused by oil price volatility and demonstrates the urgency for economic diversification.

That is why Vision 2030 is more than a road map; it is a race against time. The aim is to build a multi-engine economy driven by tourism, advanced manufacturing, green energy, and above all, data.

If data is the new oil, then AI is the refinery — extracting valuable insights, spotting patterns and driving smarter decisions in real-time. However, this goes beyond analytics; it is about engineering an entirely new operating system for the Kingdom.

Across Saudi Arabia, invisible AI systems are shaping the visible fabric of development. From intelligent power grids and AI-driven public services to cognitive urban planning in NEOM, AI is embedded in the Kingdom’s critical infrastructure and is constantly refining raw data into actionable insights.

Saudi Arabia is not just following global AI trends; it is forging its own unique AI landscape. Institutions like the Saudi Data and AI Authority, and initiatives like the National Strategy for Data and AI, are leading the charge in building an ethical, localized foundation of AI innovations, designed to meet the Kingdom’s specific operational and governance needs.

And this shift is not confined to paper strategies; it is being coded into action.

In high-risk industries, AI is not just supporting safety — it is driving it in real-time. On construction sites, PPE detection and work-at-height monitoring ensure on-the-ground compliance, while ergonomics and behavioral monitoring flag fatigue or risky posture before injuries occur.

If data is the new oil, then AI is the refinery — extracting valuable insights, spotting patterns and driving smarter decisions in real-time.

Gary Ng

In oil and gas, AI-enabled smoke and fire detection, access control systems and fleet monitoring help secure hazardous zones, track vehicle efficiency and reduce accidents in volatile environments.

Meanwhile, in manufacturing, intelligent systems streamline floor operations, pinpointing bottlenecks, enforcing safety norms and safeguarding workforce well-being through continuous monitoring. Across these sectors, data informs and makes decisions — instantly and autonomously.

But the momentum does not stop there. Across logistics hubs, warehouses, public infrastructure and even giga-projects like NEOM, these applications are scaling. Whether it is enhancing worker safety in extreme conditions or optimizing equipment performance, AI is shaping how decisions are made.

This shift is subtle, but deeply human. Because it is not just about reducing paperwork or ticking off compliance boxes, but also about preventing loss of life.

In this context, companies like viAct are building solutions tailored to such industrial needs. The scenario-based AI solutions, often integrated with edge devices, AI CCTV and generative AI, help detect safety violations in dynamic jobsite environments, offering nudges toward safer behavior without halting operations.

This shift is not just about platforms or policies; it is about lives on the ground. What happens when a machine-learning model helps a site engineer spot a safety lapse before it becomes a disaster? What changes when AI enables frontline workers to operate more safely in extreme conditions? These are the questions defining the human side of Saudi Arabia’s AI revolution.

As Saudi Arabia is trading gigs for algorithms, it is clear that progress will not be measured in barrels, but in bytes. This is more than a digital upgrade — it is a systemic reinvention of how industries operate, grow and protect their people.

And while the scale of this transformation is national, its real power lies in the granular — the engineer who avoids an accident, the factory that adapts in real-time, the city that learns and the workforce that thrives.

The question now is not whether data will drive Vision 2030; it is how that data is refined into meaningful outcomes. The answer lies in technologies that are not just smart, but situational, helping industries make decisions that save time, resources and lives.

• Gary Ng is co-founder and CEO of viAct, a Hong Kong-based startup that uses AI to monitor workplace safety

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point of view

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Not enough tents, food reaching Gaza as winter comes, aid agencies say

Updated 5 sec ago

November 04, 2025 14:52

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Not enough tents, food reaching Gaza as winter comes, aid agencies say

Updated 5 sec ago

November 04, 2025 14:52

CAIRO/GENEVA: Far too little aid is reaching Gaza nearly four weeks after a ceasefire, humanitarian agencies said on Tuesday, as hunger persists with winter approaching and old tents start to fray following Israel’s devastating two-year offensive.
The truce was meant to unleash a torrent of aid across the tiny, crowded enclave where famine was confirmed in August and where almost all the 2.3 million inhabitants have lost their homes to Israeli bombardment.
However, only half the needed amount of food is coming in, according to the World Food Programme, while an umbrella group of Palestinian agencies said overall aid volumes were between a quarter and a third of the expected amount.
Israel says it is fulfilling its obligations under the ceasefire agreement, which calls for an average of 600 trucks of supplies into Gaza per day. It blames Hamas fighters for any food shortages, accusing them of stealing food aid before it can be distributed, which the group denies.
Gaza’s local administration, long controlled by Hamas, says most trucks are still not reaching their destinations due to Israeli restrictions, and only about 145 per day are delivering supplies.
The United Nations, which earlier in the war published daily figures on aid trucks crossing into Gaza, is no longer giving those figures routinely.

TENTS ‘COMPLETELY WORN OUT’
“It is dire. No proper tents, or proper water, or proper food, or proper money,” said Manal Salem, 52, who lives in a tent in Khan Younis in southern Gaza that she says is “completely worn out” and she fears will not last the winter.
The ceasefire and greater flow of aid since mid-October has brought some improvements, said the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA.
Last week OCHA said a tenth of children screened in Gaza were still acutely malnourished, down from 14 percent in September, with over 1,000 showing the most severe form of malnutrition.
Half of families in Gaza have reported increased access to food, especially in the south, as more aid and commercial supplies entered after the truce, and households were eating on average two meals a day, up from one in July, OCHA said.
There is still a sharp divide between the south and the north where conditions remain far worse, it said.

FOOD, SHELTER, FUEL NEEDED
Abeer Etefa, senior spokesperson for WFP, described the situation as a “race against time.”
“We need full access. We need everything to be moving fast,” she said. “The winter months are coming. People are still suffering from hunger, and the needs are overwhelming.”
Since the ceasefire the agency has brought in 20,000 metric tons of food assistance, roughly half the amount needed to meet people’s needs, and has opened 44 out of a targeted 145 distribution sites, she said.
The variety of food needed to ward off malnutrition is also lacking, she added.
“The majority of households that we’ve spoken to are only consuming cereals, pulses, dry food rations, which people cannot survive on for a long time. Meat, eggs, vegetables, fruits are being consumed extremely rarely,” she said.
A continuing lack of fuel, including cooking gas, is also hampering nutrition efforts, and over 60 percent of Gazans are cooking using burning waste, said OCHA, adding to health risks.
With winter approaching, Gazans need shelter. Tents are wearing thin. Buildings that survived the military onslaught are often open to the weather or unstable and dangerous.
“We’re coming into winter soon — rainwater and possible floods, as well as potential diseases because of the hundreds of tons of garbage near populated areas,” said Amjad Al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian agencies that liaise with the UN
He said only 25-30 percent of the amount of aid expected into Gaza had entered so far.
“The living conditions are unimaginable,” said Shaina Low, spokesperson for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which leads a group of agencies working on a lack of shelter in Gaza.
The NRC estimates that 1.5 million people need shelter in Gaza but large volumes of tents, tarpaulins and related aid is still waiting to come in, awaiting Israeli approvals, Low said.