This week's top stories — 20-26 July
Saudi opens Tawakkalna superapp sandbox; Presight partners with Tajikistan
This was the week that Saudi Arabia announced it’s first extensive city robotaxi trial, partnering with Uber and WeRide to run a 12-month pilot.
In other news, Saudi opened its public service platform Tawakkalna to the private sector via a regulated sandbox; Presight signed a strategy agreement with Tajikistan; Saudi startup OmniOps launched a sovereign AI inference platform; Onepoint announced plans for an AI CoE in Morocco; and AI71 launched its AI construction management platform.
Here are this weeks biggest AI news stories!
Sunday, July 20th
🔥 2025 UAE AI Award opens for entries
Annual UAE AI Award opens for entries from public sector, AI leaders
Monday, July 21st
🔊 Listen to Monday’s Daily News Minute
🔥 New sandbox opens Saudi superapp to private sector
Private developers can now access 34 million users via regulated sandbox
🔥 Tajikistan partners with Presight for AI development
Presight signs strategic agreement with Tajikistan Ministry of Industry
Tuesday, July 22nd
🔊 Listen to Tuesday’s Daily News Minute
🔥 MBZUAI launches youth AI skills programme
University selected 38 students from 150 applications for summer programme
🔥 First Saudi sovereign AI inference service platform launched
New inference platform Bunyan ensures data sovereignty and compliance
Wednesday, July 23rd
🔊 Listen to Wednesday’s Daily News Minute
🔥 UAE central bank, Presight form AI fintech joint venture
New partnership targets digital currency and payments infrastructure
🔥 Onepoint to open AI centre of excellence in Casablanca
New data and AI centre to create 500 jobs by 2029; drive digital transformation
🔥 AI71 launches construction lifecycle platform
SuperHive promises 50% faster decision-making across projects
Thursday, July 24th
🔊 Listen to Thursday’s Daily News Minute
🔥 12 month robotaxi trial begins in Riyadh
Saudi Arabia launches city autonomous taxi trial with WeRide
Friday, July 25th
🔊 Listen to Friday’s Daily News Minute
Saturday, July 26th
🔊 Listen to Saturdays Daily News Minute
🔥 SAMAI AI training reaches 424,000 Saudi citizens
SDAIA initiative accelerates towards million-person target
[Written and edited by a human]