The Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence (SDAIA) launched the National Framework for AI Risk Management, as a guiding reference that provides a unified national methodology for identifying, assessing, treating, and monitoring risks, enabling public and private entities to adopt this technology in a safe and responsible manner consistent with national priorities and directions.

The launch of the framework comes amid the rapid expansion in adopting artificial intelligence technologies at both global and local levels, due to the risks that AI systems may pose, which differ in nature from risks of traditional technical systems, and their potential impacts on individuals, entities, and the national economy.

SDAIA explained that AI risks have a different nature from traditional software risks, as they may appear unexpectedly during operation, and system performance may change over time, in addition to the difficulty of interpreting their behavior and reproducing their outcomes, making risk identification and assessment more complex and requiring an integrated management methodology.

The Authority stated that the risk management methodology is based on an integrated lifecycle comprising four interconnected stages: starting with context and scope identification, then risk identification, assessment, and treatment, leading to continuous monitoring and review, while calculating the risk level through a matrix linking the likelihood of occurrence and the magnitude of impact, thus unifying the evaluation mechanism among entities and supporting comparison and prioritization of treatment.

The Authority noted that the framework is based on seven core principles: integrity and fairness, privacy and security, humanity, reliability and safety, transparency and explainability, accountability and responsibility, and social and environmental benefits. It also classifies AI risks into seven main types to ensure comprehensive identification and avoid overlooking any essential risk category.

The framework includes an application scenario simulating a government entity using a model for internal report preparation, illustrating the identification, assessment, treatment, and monitoring of associated risks, providing entities with a practical model applicable across various sectors and digital maturity levels.

This framework is part of SDAIA’s efforts to establish responsible and safe use of AI technologies and empower national entities to adopt them, based on its role as the national reference for data and AI in the Kingdom, and as a contribution to enhancing the digital innovation ecosystem in line with the goals of Saudi Vision 2030.

Interested parties can view the National Framework for AI Risk Management on SDAIA’s official website.