RIYADH: Artificial intelligence talent is flocking to Saudi Arabia, according to a survey by LinkedIn which shows the Kingdom has climbed nine spots in the global rankings for attracting AI experts. Saudi Arabia now ranks 15th globally in talent attraction in this sector relative to population size, up from 24th last year, indicating a positive net flow of talent. Additionally, the Kingdom has advanced five positions in AI skills penetration over the past year, moving from 35th place to 30th place, as reported by the world’s largest professional social network. Ali Matar – Europe, Middle East, and Africa growth markets leader and head of LinkedIn in the Middle East and North Africa region – said that the latest labor market data offers additional insights into how Saudi Arabia is becoming one of the most attractive places to work as it progresses toward Vision 2030. “The insights are indeed a nod to the Kingdom’s efforts to establish itself as an AI and data leader and signal a growing tech industry that is curating a savvy and adaptive workforce.” LinkedIn’s latest data offers insight into the Saudi workforce’s rapid transformation to align with the ambitions of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 economic diversification intiative and the opportunities presented by the rise of AI. LinkedIn, which has over 9 million members in the Kingdom, highlighted these trends. One notable aspect highlighted by the data is that Saudi Arabia leads the MENA region in several disruptive digital skills, including development tools, materials sciences, and nanotechnology. The report added that these skills are associated with developing new technologies that are expected to impact the labor market in the coming years. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia ranks second in the MENA region across all digital skills categories on an aggregate level, with the UAE leading the region and demonstrating the Kingdom’s overall strong performance in acquiring digital competencies. The global social network’s data also revealed that Saudi Arabia demonstrates exceptional proficiency in applied digital skills such as animation and computer graphics compared to other countries in the MENA region. In addition, the Kingdom surpasses the global average in animation skills, indicating a high level of expertise and competence in this specific digital skill area. Moreover, the data showed that Saudi Arabia’s cybersecurity trends outperform the global average, registering at 3.1 percent compared to the worldwide norm of 2.5 percent. Additionally, the country is progressively narrowing the gap in gender diversity within the industry, signifying positive momentum toward fostering inclusivity and representation. Insights from the LinkedIn survey also highlighted a global uptick in generative AI, with an overwhelming 79 percent of Saudi employees anticipating substantial shifts in their work dynamics over the coming year due to AI advancements. The findings also showed that the Kingdom’s AI talent pool is steadily rising, with the pool doubling between 2016 and 2023. This upward trend appears to be gaining momentum, evidenced by a 24 percent year-over-year increase in AI talent-hiring relative to overall hiring. According to LinkedIn, this upward trend is reinforced by recent data illustrating the widespread adoption of AI skills across Saudi Arabia. The data emphasizes that the country’s fastest-growing AI skills include reinforcement learning, pattern recognition and predictive modeling as well as supervised learning, and PyTorch, all of which contribute to the advancement of generative AI.