Saudi AI training initiative draws 51,000 participants from 170 countries

Saudi Arabia’s push to build an AI-ready workforce has reached a new milestone, with more than 51,000 people from 170 countries registering for a training initiative to develop practical AI skills.

The AI Training Hackathon, organized by Kanz in partnership with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, attracted 51,693 registrations during an eight-day online program featuring six evenings of live instruction. Of those, 24,816 participants attended the sessions live, while 14,075 people simultaneously joined an AI lesson, earning a Guinness World Record for the largest attendance at an AI video lesson.

The initiative reflects Saudi Arabia’s broader ambition to strengthen its AI ecosystem by combining investments in cloud infrastructure, advanced computing, data centers, and research with large-scale workforce development under Vision 2030.

By the end of the program, participants had built more than 3,400 AI-powered applications and received over 21,000 certificates. Graduates also left with online portfolios designed to showcase their work to prospective employers.

“The record is the headline. The transformation is the point,” Roy Baladi, founder and CEO of Kanz, told Arab News. “Every participant ends the week having built a working AI app — not watched a lecture about one.”

Unlike many AI courses that focus primarily on theory, the hackathon emphasized hands-on learning. Over eight evenings, participants used no-code platforms to build AI tools, automate workflows, create research assistants, generate presentations and multimedia content, and develop business solutions before combining those skills into a final application.

The program required no prior coding experience and was delivered in both Arabic and English, making it accessible to students, entrepreneurs, and professionals from a wide range of backgrounds.

Baladi said lowering technical barriers is essential to making AI a practical workplace tool rather than a specialist discipline.

“If you can write an email, you can build with AI,” he said.

Saudi Arabia accounted for a significant share of participation, with more than 19,000 registrations from within the Kingdom, including over 10,000 Saudi nationals. More than 9,100 participants attended the training sessions live from Saudi Arabia and collectively developed more than 1,900 AI projects.

“The hunger for AI skills here is enormous and barely tapped,” Baladi said. “Give people a real, free and practical way to learn, and they respond.”

The program comes as AI adoption accelerates across industries, including finance, healthcare, manufacturing, education, and government, driving demand for workers who can apply AI tools regardless of their technical background. Rather than positioning AI as a field reserved for software developers, the initiative focused on practical workplace applications such as workflow automation, content generation, data analysis and productivity enhancement.

Participants also received publicly accessible AI portfolios, along with certificates issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development and the Lebanese American University’s Academy of Continuing Education. Graduates were additionally offered access to a follow-on AI course and certification developed by Google and the University of Helsinki.

With participants representing more than 170 countries and 140 nationalities, organizers said the program underscores the growing global demand for accessible AI education.

As Saudi Arabia works to establish itself as a global AI hub, initiatives such as the AI Training Hackathon suggest that the Kingdom’s strategy extends beyond infrastructure investment to the development of the talent needed to translate AI capabilities into real-world applications.