PDPL in force; AI governed by SDAIA principlesAI Laws in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia governs AI through its data authority, SDAIA (the Saudi Data & Artificial Intelligence Authority), rather than a dedicated AI Act. The binding instrument is the Personal Data Protection Law (Royal Decree M/19 of 2021, amended 2023), which became fully enforceable on 14 September 2024 and carries fines up to SAR 5 million plus criminal liability for misuse of sensitive data. On top of it, SDAIA has issued non-binding AI Ethics Principles (2023) and Generative AI Guidelines (2024) covering fairness, transparency, accountability and human oversight, all aligned with the National Strategy for Data & AI and Vision 2030's goal of becoming a top-tier AI economy. Companies deploying AI must comply with the PDPL and are expected to follow SDAIA's guidelines.
Applicable laws
Penalty: PDPL: fines up to SAR 5M (doubling for repeat offences) and up to 2 years' imprisonment for unlawful sensitive-data disclosure
Live legislative tracker
Updated August 31, 2026AI and digital-regulation bills in motion and instruments in force in Saudi Arabia, pulled automatically from the official legislature feed.
Guidance & voluntary frameworks (1)
Saudi Arabia has no binding AI-specific legislation in force that we track. That does not mean AI is ungoverned there. The official frameworks below are in effect and set out what regulators expect — and general law (data protection, consumer protection, sectoral and anti-discrimination rules) still applies to AI systems in the ordinary way. None of these is legislation and none creates a legal obligation by itself, so they are counted separately from binding law — never added to it. See our scope definition.
Recent AI law developments in Saudi Arabia
Updated September 15, 2026Recent news coverage of AI regulation and policy in Saudi Arabia. Headlines are aggregated automatically; follow each link for the full story.
Coverage from Livemint on AI legislation and regulation relevant to Saudi Arabia.
Coverage from entARABI on AI legislation and regulation relevant to Saudi Arabia.
Coverage from The National Law Review on AI legislation and regulation relevant to Saudi Arabia.
Coverage from finance.biggo.com on AI legislation and regulation relevant to Saudi Arabia.
Coverage from english.aawsat.com on AI legislation and regulation relevant to Saudi Arabia.
High-risk industries to watch in Saudi Arabia
US-based? Check your state laws too
If you're a US company serving Saudi Arabia customers, you need to comply with both your state's AI laws and Saudi Arabia regulation.
Anchored to the primary government source (statute, bill text, or agency rule) and verified directly against it · Last verified Jun 18, 2026. See our methodology.
- ↗sdaia.gov.sahttps://sdaia.gov.sa/en/SDAIA/about/Pages/PersonalDataProtection.aspx
- ↗sdaia.gov.sahttps://sdaia.gov.sa/en/SDAIA/about/Pages/AIEthics.aspx
- ↗my.gov.sahttps://www.my.gov.sa/wps/portal/snp/aboutksa/nationalStrategyForData