A Saudi artificial intelligence programme for researchers has attracted 12,343 registered participants from 100 countries, according to the Saudi Press Agency. The online programme is being run by the King Abdulaziz Complex for Endowment Libraries during AI Week and forms part of Saudi Arabia’s 2026 Year of Artificial Intelligence activities.
The second session focused on using AI agents to read scientific sources. The objective is to support researchers in working with large volumes of academic material and to promote the use of modern technologies in scientific research. More than two-thirds of registrants hold master’s or doctoral degrees, with participants drawn from universities, government entities, research centres and other sectors inside and outside Saudi Arabia.
An AI agent used in research can help search, organise and summarise sources, compare evidence and surface relevant passages. Those capabilities can reduce the time spent on repetitive literature work, but they do not remove the need for researchers to verify citations, assess methodology and distinguish established findings from a model’s unsupported synthesis. The quality of an agent’s output depends on the sources it can access, the way it handles uncertainty and the safeguards around confidential or unpublished material.
The programme runs through 22 October and includes sessions on artificial intelligence in scientific research, its use in serving manuscripts and the future of libraries in the age of AI. The schedule suggests a broad institutional conversation about how research organisations should adapt their services and workflows, rather than a narrow product demonstration.
The scale of registration is itself a useful signal about demand for AI literacy among researchers. It also gives Saudi institutions an opportunity to develop shared practices around responsible use, source verification, data handling and human review. Those practices will matter as universities and public bodies move from general awareness to regular use of AI tools in research and knowledge management.
The programme should not be described as evidence that autonomous AI research is replacing scholars. It is a skills and knowledge initiative exploring how AI agents can support scientific work. Its longer-term significance will depend on whether participants adopt reliable workflows, whether institutions publish guidance and whether the resulting use improves research quality without weakening attribution, reproducibility or academic judgement.
