Saudi Arabia could raise its economy to $1.6tn with intelligent automation: Research

By Amirtha P S, Desk Reporter
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Intelligent Automation
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A new research commissioned by leading Robotic Process Automation (RPA) provider Automation Anywhere has found that intelligent automation gives Saudi Arabia the capability to double its economy to $1.6 trillion, adding $293 billion by 2030.

The research ‘Saudi Arabia: Showing way to the world’ conducted by partnering with Ernst and Young (EY) shows that the Kingdom has the potential to drive technology-led productivity through intelligent automation deployments which is a combination of RPA and artificial intelligence to accelerate digital transformation.  

The EY modeler computed the impact of incremental automation adoption across all sectors of Saudi Arabia for three scenarios:

  • In an optimistic scenario, 50 percent of incremental intelligent automation adoption by organizations across the region will add $293 billion to the nominal gross domestic product (GDP).
  • In a moderate scenario, 30 percent of incremental adoption will bring $184 billion to the nominal GDP of the country.
  • Finally, in a conservative scenario, 15 percent of  incremental adoption will add $103 billion to the nominal GDP

Saudi Arabia has promoted private and public partnerships for its Vision 2030, a strategic framework to reduce Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil, diversify its economy, and develop public service sectors such as health, education, infrastructure, recreation, and tourism.

Industries including government services, the public sector, banking, insurance, energy and materials, offer the best opportunities to maximize intelligent automation while achieving the Vision 2030 goals, according to the research.   

Faisal Al-Rashoudi
Faisal Al-Rashoudi
VP & Head
Automation & Robotics
Bank Aljazira

“Intelligent automation will serve as a virtual workforce executing the repetitive and mundane tasks, allowing organizations to redeploy their workforce with improved skills and advanced productivity than ever before. Thus, we envision building a ‘Center of Excellence’ on process automation through the adoption of emerging technologies in intelligent automation to help accelerate and achieve our transformation goals and objectives in line with the overall bank’s strategy.” 

The research has put forward three key enablers to speed up the intelligent automation namely, speed up the digital transformation of government entities and private enterprises by increasing fast and secure services through the cloud, to expand training and development in digital skills, and support a stronger ecosystem of start-ups, enterprises, government, and academia to drive innovation.

Milan Sheth, Executive Vice President, IMEA, Automation Anywhere said, “We agree with the projections of the report and strongly believe that intelligent automation is the first step in a digital-first mindset and has the potential to act as a key lever in realizing the Saudi Vision 2030 goals to diversify the economy and build the skills of the future.”

Related: Saudi-based Proven Arabia launches Al and Robotics-backed startup, Proven Solution

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