The adoption of technologies in Saudi Arabia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund in propelling its attainment of Vision 2030 goals
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Authors
LOULWA FADEL ABDULLAH ALQUBLAN
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Publisher
Saudi Digital Library
Abstract
This research explores the extent to which the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital
technologies (DTs) in the Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) Vision Realisation Programme
(VRP) propel the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s success in relation to accomplishing its Vision
2030 strategy. Sentiment, empirical and semi-empirical analyses were employed to assess the
validity of the hypothesis that there is a statistically significant difference in the adoption of AI
and DT terminologies in the PIF portfolio companies between the pre- and post-Vision 2030
eras. The sentiment analysis was the backbone of this research, where it was deployed to
textually analyse the PIF’s portfolio companies’ profiles in both eras to obtain the focal
computations used in this paper. Subsequently, the empirical analysis provided concrete and
verifiable evidence that supports the hypothesis of this study, which was presented through the
calculation of the percentage and fold changes as well as a statistical significance test between
the two different sets of textually analysed portfolio companies. Where empirical evidence was
implausible to obtain due to data boundaries, a semi-empirical analysis was deployed to yield
findings, which were also in accordance with the hypothesis. Further analysis surrounding the
implications of AI and DTs on the macroeconomic level of the Kingdom illustrated that these
domains have a positive impact on the macroeconomic indicators employed. The finding that
AI does not have an adverse impact on labour represents somewhat of a deviation from the less
than a handful of existing literature on the topic, providing a fascinating idiosyncratic insight
that further advocates the in-depth exploration of AI implications on the labour force. Despite
this notion, the results in this paper exhibited that the empirical and semi-empirical analyses
acted as complements and have supported the hypothesis that the incorporation of AI and DTs
in the PIF propelled The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to achieve its Vision 2030 strategy. This
paradigm is in the vicinity of the available literature on sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and
their shift towards incorporating innovative technologies in their portfolios. Nonetheless, none
of the existing literature on innovative technologies in SWFs provided empirical or even
country-specific analysis. Furthermore, existing literature may have slightly tapped into the
impact of innovative technologies on SWFs using qualitative observations, but none have
explored the impact of an SWF on its country’s macroeconomy, thus devaluating the literary
contribution. Conversely, this research contextualises the combination of empirical and semiempirical
analyses with the sole emphasis on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and investigates
the impact of the PIF on the country by gathering and analysing its macroeconomic indicators;
thus, bridging a substantial research gap via the provision of structured analyses and in-depth
knowledge on numerous aspects of the country. Consequently, future research may build upon
this inclusive and comprehensive conceptual framework through diverse applications across
countries.