investigation on Artificial intelligence impacts on the future of the employees and top management perceptions: A case study towards the use of Artificial intelligence from the Saudi Arabia public sector

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Abstract
The goal of this study is to provide overall assessment on the impact of Artificial
Intelligence (AI) initiatives on employees and management in the public sector in
Saudi Arabia; and suggest success measures to eliminate the negative effects.
Keywords: Artificial intelligence, AI, Employees, Management, Public sector,
Saudi Arabia
1. Problem Definition
Artificial Intelligence is changing the global economy more than ever. Saudi 2030
digital transformation vision’s for the public sector is transforming how the
government works by utilizing AI technologies as a key solution. The government
in Saudi Arabia is making a huge investment in AI as part of 2030 vision’s initiatives
with expected contribution to the Saudi economy of 135.2 billion by 2030 (PWC,
2020). This digital transformation resulted in increase and fast adoption of AI
technology in the public sector. However, the lack of readiness of the current
workforce and the shortage of proper alignment between the top management and
their teams raised challenges that prevent many initiatives to fail from achieving its
purpose. Figure 1 shows the estimated annual contribution of AI in gulf region.
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Figure 1: The estimated annual contribution of AI in gulf region (PWC,2020)
2. Research Question(s)
 How the management and employees in public sectors are well aware of the
artificial intelligence use in their organization?
 What is the perception of the managers and employees in public sectors on
the outcome of the information generated from AI supported analytics? Do
they rely on the information generated from AI? How they view the accuracy
rate?
 What is the perception of employees about adopting and use of AI? Do they
feel that their jobs are threatened by AI or AI impacting their future in the
organization or the market?
 Do the employees in the public sector think they are being well prepared for
AI before adopting it in the organization? What the employees think they
need in terms of enablement to make the most of AI technology?
3. Objectives
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The objective of this study is to add value and contribute in terms of the
documentation of the readiness of public sector employees for adopting AI in Saudi
Arabia by presenting a snapshot of public sector employees’ perceptions in Saudi
Arabia. This study contributes significantly as useful resource for public sector AI
strategists as well as change management experts in AI because:
1. It evaluates the impact of major AI initiatives of Saudi Arabia to enable the
comparisons of what was planned to what has been implemented.
2. The effect of AI initiatives on the workforces, specifically the top management
and employees is presented and compared.
Although AI studies have appeared since the past few decades, only a few research
has been done in Saudi Arabia.
4. Evidence of Requirements
Change management is a critical stage in every IT project especially for AI
projects which are different from traditional IT projects, In order to make sure the
transition to AI be as smooth as possible employees need to be well prepared in both
soft and technical skills. Although there is no study done on that before in Saudi
Arabia, this study will be a foundation for further studies to help in assessing the
employees’ readiness and provide indicators to be used by AI practitioners.
5. Context Description
Limitation in this study could be encountered. First, limitation is the delay in the
responses. Second, it is not possible to guarantee the accuracy of responses entered
by the respondents due to the lack of understanding of key AI concepts,. Finally, it
is impossible to associate one definite meaning during the qualitative analysis of the
responses but using automated tools in addition to the author direct analysis will
ensure more accurate interpretation.
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6. Research Methodology
In order to get better insights into the different employees’ views, a survey and
interviews will be used to collect data from public sector employees. The survey
provides details at different levels; first, it tries to understand the reasoning behind
AI initiatives in public sector regarding the current investments in addition to future
goals; secondly, it is planned to explore the impacts of AI initiatives on employees
and top management. Finally, measure the effect of AI initiatives on the employees
in a personal level, regarding their work’s future, their engagement with the
organization and possible opportunities.
The survey will be distributed to a targeted audience who are employees in the
public sector entities that adopted AI solutions. Both managers as well as among
carefully selected employees that are involved with using AI platform and report to
the same managers. To ensure accurate reach to right employees’ for this study
information about their titles, educational level, gender and age will be captured. The
survey consists of 10 multiple choice questions that will be measured on a 5 point
Likert scale. Likert scale used to represent individual’s opinions and attitudes to a
specific topic. The Likert scale ranges from one extreme to another.
The survey will include 4 open statement questions, which will be used in the
survey as a secondary research. The open statement questions will provide an
authentic feedback in the employees’ own words to better understand their opinions
and what are the drivers behind these opinions. Content analysis method will be used
to analyze and represent the responses. Content analysis is used to interpret the
meaning and semantic relationships in the responses through the use of themes and
coding of the words.
In addition, complimentary research will be conducted to leverage existing sources
such as studies and reports in gaining better understanding for the existing efforts
and views.
7. Brief Product Description
Final report will be delivered by the author.
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8. Deliverables
Final Report and presentation will be delivered by the author.
9. Resources
 Middlesex university library search
 Google Scholar
 Survey Monkey tool to design the survey and analyse the quantitative data.
 NVivo Software for qualitative data analysis.