Smart Data and AI Summit Saudi Arabia

Smart Data and AI Summit Saudi Arabia is a two-day B2B summit and exhibition on data strategy, analytics, and AI deployment in the Saudi market, held at the JW Marriott Hotel Riyadh under the Smart Data Series brand of Tradepass. Three editions have been scheduled: the inaugural on 27-28 May 2024, the second on 27-28 August 2025, and a third on 26-27 August 2026.

The record does not say. As of 1 September 2026 the organiser has published no recap, no photographs, no figures, and no statement of any kind about the third edition. Equally, no cancellation or postponement notice exists. The official site still presents 26-27 August 2026 as upcoming, and the Tradepass portfolio page still lists the summit under those passed dates. Events Index treats the 2026 edition as scheduled and unreported, and asserts neither that it ran nor that it did not.

No. No fourth edition of Smart Data and AI Summit Saudi Arabia is announced on the event site, in its news feed, or on the Tradepass portfolio page. That last point carries weight: the same portfolio page lists 2027 dates for other Tradepass brands, including WorldFIS Kenya on 2 March 2027 in Nairobi, so the operator is publishing 2027 listings and the Saudi summit is not among them. Three annual editions would put a fourth around August 2027, but that is an inference and no date exists.

Very little, and that is an observation about how the event operates rather than a scheduling accident. The 2026 agenda page carried session titles and time slots recycled from a prior edition, with no speakers attached, under a "2026 Edition Loading" footer. The delegate-registration page showed the same placeholder rather than a live form. No 2026 speaker roster and no 2026 sponsor list were ever released. Both placeholders stood through June, July, and August 2026, held on the event dates themselves, and still stand today.

The organiser describes the delegate base as pre-qualified senior professionals from Saudi public and private organisations, screened on technology procurement budget. Stated job titles: chief data officers, CIOs, CTOs, and heads of data science, business intelligence, AI strategy, and machine learning. Eighteen sectors are listed, led by government, banking, insurance, telecom, oil and gas, healthcare, and logistics. Every element of this profile is organiser-declared and none of it independently verified.

The published two-day structure combines keynotes, panel discussions, fireside chats, and an awards ceremony with an exhibition floor of solution providers. Recurring topics across the agenda template and prior editions: Vision 2030 through data intelligence, AI governance, generative AI, data strategy, data ethics, data mesh, data virtualisation, and AI in smart urban development. No 2026 programme was ever published, so the content record stops with the 2024 and 2025 editions.

Ten speakers are on the record from the event's own 2025 page: Kamaludeen Mohamed (Director, BI and AI, Tawakkalna, Saudi Data and AI Authority), Mohamed Abdelsadig (Data Analytics and Excellence Director, STC), Ulysses Demos (Senior Director, Data Management and Protection Office, Red Sea Global), Haniah Alanazi (Executive Advisory, Digital Transformation and Data Management, Ministry of Education), Nawaf Alghamdi (Director, Data Analytics and AI, Council of Health Insurance), Tunc Ozcan (Director, Data Analytics, Nahdi Medical Company), Abdullah AlBar (Chief Data Officer, Abdul Latif Jameel United Finance), Ahmed Alamer (Data Office Director, Zain), Prakash Logaiya (Group Head of Data and AI Engineering, Al-Futtaim), and H.E. Dr. Suhel Ajaz Khan (Ambassador of India to Saudi Arabia). Denodo, a data virtualisation vendor, is the only named sponsor on the record, as a 2025 Gold Sponsor.

They are the organiser's pre-event projection for the 2026 edition, still displayed on the site alongside 200+ organisations and 25+ solution providers. They are not a realised attendance figure for 2026 or any other edition, and no audited or post-event attendance count exists for Smart Data and AI Summit Saudi Arabia. The often-repeated claim that 81% of 2025 attendees held influence or sole responsibility over procurement decisions is likewise organiser-declared and unverified.

Delegate pricing for Smart Data and AI Summit Saudi Arabia has never been published, for any edition. Registration is organiser-controlled and qualification-based rather than self-service: no live form opened for 2026, and no future edition is scheduled to register for. Sponsorship and exhibition packages are quoted on request through the site contact section. No hybrid or virtual attendance option is documented.

Tradepass, a B2B conference and exhibition producer headquartered in Bengaluru, India, which calls itself on its homepage the world's number one events company. It runs the Smart Data Series alongside brands including WorldFIS, IndoSec, Cyfrica, DigitalCIO, and the DCCI Summit, across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Tradepass holds a second Riyadh slot at the same JW Marriott venue a week after the Smart Data date, the DCCI Summit Saudi Arabia on 1-2 September 2026. Its legal entity name and founding year are not published.

Treat Smart Data and AI Summit Saudi Arabia as unbookable until a 2027 date appears, and build the calendar around fixtures with published dates. On the AI and data circuit, the Riyadh alternatives at larger scale are the GAIN Global AI Summit Riyadh, the Global AI Show Riyadh, the AI Revolution Summit Riyadh, and the infrastructure-focused AI Infrastructure and Data Centers Summit Riyadh.

Academic researchers and anyone after peer-reviewed or deeply technical AI content: the format is commercial and buyer-facing. Startups without enterprise deployments, since the delegate screen is procurement budget. Engineers wanting hands-on workshops or code-level sessions, which the agenda has never carried. Anyone with no business-development interest in the Gulf. And anyone who needs a confirmed date, a published agenda, or an open registration form before committing travel.