SDAIA builds Arabic speech and language technology it owns, from the data to the deployed service
With aixplain, SDAIA built Arabic speech technology and an Arabic data platform it owns: on its own servers, run by its own people.
Sovereign AI starts with capability you own. The Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) leads the Kingdom's data and AI agenda, and it wanted Arabic speech and data technology built in the Kingdom, running on its own servers and run by its own people. aixplain has worked alongside its National Center for AI to make that real: on SauTech, SDAIA's speech technology, and on Tawseem, the platform its teams use to build Arabic data.
Why it mattered: capability, not a purchase
- Arabic is underserved. Global speech and language technology is built for other languages first. Arabic brings dialects, diacritics, mixed Arabic and English, and numbers written many ways, and generic tools miss them.
- Data is the foundation. Arabic AI needs Arabic data, labeled with care. Whoever owns that pipeline owns the pace of progress.
- Dependence is the risk. A national capability can't rest on an outside vendor's roadmap, servers or staff. It had to stay with SDAIA.
How aixplain delivered: inside the team, built to hand over
- Inside the team. aixplain's scientists, with AppTek's speech specialists, worked within SDAIA's teams, and SDAIA's own specialists reviewed the work as it went.
- Arabic as a design input. Every part was built for how Arabic is actually spoken and written, from speech to text to the data behind them.
- From research to production. The same partner took the work from models to a service that runs at scale, and from data tools to a platform in daily use.
- Built to hand over. Code, models, data and documentation went to SDAIA, with training, so its engineers run and extend everything themselves.
- A coordinated ecosystem. Partners in the Kingdom, SCAI and Knowledge Net, and specialists such as AppTek each brought their part, with aixplain bringing it together.
What SDAIA has now
- SauTech. Arabic speech technology running as a service on SDAIA's own servers, ready for the Kingdom's services to build on.
- Tawseem. The platform SDAIA's teams use to produce Arabic data, with review and quality checks built in, under SDAIA's name.
- Its own people. SDAIA's engineers run, extend and own both. The capability stays in the Kingdom.
What's next: data, models and agents the Kingdom owns
The same approach carries to agents. On the aixplain OS, agents run on the models an organization chooses, on its own servers or air-gapped, and every agent answers to an owner. The data, the models and the agents stay with the people who answer for them.
See aixplain at work
aixplain is the operating system for accountable AI agents you own. Organizations run more of their operations and services on agents, on any model and any server. Every run is checked against policy, and every agent answers to an owner.
Book a demo to see how your teams can build Arabic data, models and agents on your own infrastructure.