SDAIA launches SAMAI 2 and 40 AI academic programs at ICAN 2026
By Cicada DeskEvent date: 1 min read
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In brief
At the International Conference on Data and AI Capacity Building (ICAN 2026) at King Saud University, Education Minister Yousef Al-Benyan and Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) President Abdullah Alghamdi launched SAMAI 2 with 11 government ministries, aimed at upskilling the government workforce of about 1.2 million people and building on SAMAI 1's 1.1 million trainees.
At the International Conference on Data and AI Capacity Building (ICAN 2026) at King Saud University, Education Minister Yousef Al-Benyan and Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) President Abdullah Alghamdi launched SAMAI 2 with 11 government ministries, aimed at upskilling the government workforce of about 1.2 million people and building on SAMAI 1's 1.1 million trainees. The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported that they also launched 40 specialized academic programs in data and AI across 14 public and private universities.
The conference theme was the future of education and work in the AI era.
Key figures
- 1,200,000peoplegovernment workforce targeted
- 1,100,000peopleSAMAI 1 trainees
- 40academic programmes
Sources
This report is compiled from the sources below. Cicada links to every source we rely on.
- 1Saudi Arabia launches SAMAI 2 workforce AI initiative Middle East AI News · 29 Jan 2026
- 2Education Minister, SDAIA President Launch 40 Academic Programs in Data, AI Saudi Press Agency (SPA)
Archive report. Written in 2026 from contemporary sources and dated to the day the event happened.
Cite this story
Cicada Desk. "SDAIA launches SAMAI 2 and 40 AI academic programs at ICAN 2026". Cicada, 28 January 2026. https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/ican-2026-samai-2-academic-programmes
Free to quote and reuse with attribution under CC BY 4.0.
