Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has announced the launch of Humain, a company owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), aimed at developing and managing artificial intelligence solutions and technologies and investing in the sector ecosystem.

This latest launch is part of the country’s digital transformation strategy, leveraging modern technology and artificial intelligence capabilities to impact operations across Saudi Arabia's several sectors. This launch also follows Saudi Arabia's investment in AI and hosting companies through its local server systems in Dammam and other cities.  

The Crown Prince, who chairs Humain's board of directors, said the company will work on providing the latest AI models and applications, including developing one of the best large language models (LLM) in Arabic, alongside next-generation data centres and cloud computing infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia recently topped the global AI strategy benchmark on the 2024 Global AI Index, according to the Saudi Press Agency report on May 12.

The PIF and several of its portfolio companies are working to strengthen the local AI ecosystem through investments and international partnerships, leveraging Saudi Arabia's advantages, including early investments in the sector, and regional heft as it continues to consolidate its position as a regional AI powerhouse. 

The organisation also uses the “Groq” AI interface, which is powered by previous deals with foreign technology firms and unrelated to Elon Musk’s model of a similar name “Grok.”

Humain hopes it will contribute to enabling and enhancing capabilities in developing and delivering AI applications and solutions locally, regionally, and internationally, opening new horizons in the digital economy, according to the press release seen by IntelliNews.

The company said it will support and coordinate various initiatives related to data centres and hardware, accelerate the adoption of AI technologies across different fields, and provide an integrated system of digital economy solutions in various strategic sectors such as energy, healthcare, industry, and financial services.

AI is now being pushed in several subjects, including the annual Hajj, where it is set to be used for facial recognition purposes to monitor the flow of people.

Earlier in March, the Saudi authorities announced the launch of the first multilingual AI agent which hopes to save 10,000 hours, according to authorities in that country.

The digital employee will automate routine tasks, saving more than 10,000 working hours annually. Its responsibilities include attendance management, immediate report generation, and data analysis, which contribute to required accuracy and ensure real-time team readiness according to operational requirements.

Earlier, Silicon Valley AI pioneer Groq secured a $1.5bn commitment from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for expanded delivery of its advanced LPU-based AI inference infrastructure. The Saudi funding has secured the Humain developments in recent months.