Proceeding from the importance of integration between government entities, to adopt and enable emerging technologies in a successful and safe manner, the Authority has prepared the “Guidelines for Adopting Emerging Technologies” for government entities to be guided with and apply it, to achieve the most prominent requirements of the modern era and keep pace with the interest in adopting emerging technologies, as this becomes clear through the presence of many innovative and applicable use cases in various sectors, in addition to the availability of many job vacancies, and the intensity of efforts on the process of innovation and continuous research and development that shed light on the solutions and capabilities inherent in the technologies themselves. Therefore, the adoption of these technologies represents an enabling strategic means that governments rely on to achieve their specific goals in modern ways that stimulate creativity, productivity, and accuracy factors. Despite the lack of maturity and ambiguity associated with emerging technologies, it should be highlighted the importance of gradual adoption efforts where they are implemented in a comprehensive and flexible strategy in line with the rapid growth of these technologies and the changing needs of specific stakeholders in order to avoid potential negative impacts and unexpected risks.

This guideline aims to guide government entities in the journey of adopting their emerging technologies through:

• Familiarize with sufficient general knowledge related to emerging technologies, its general characteristics and its potential contributions.
• Introducing the most prominent organizational methods that are compatible with the strategic directions of the digital government and what meets the aspirations and needs of the beneficiaries.
• Defining methodologies and frameworks for developing PoCs, MVPs and prototypes for innovative and agile solutions to provide digital government services in line with the strategic directions of the digital government and what meets the aspirations and needs of the beneficiaries.
• Supporting government entities in decision-making related to emerging technologies and investing in them in a way that contributes to promoting innovation in the provision of digital government services, raising their quality, and helping to reduce costs.
• Enabling digital government services by taking advantage of inspiring global success stories related to the adoption of an emerging technology.
• Directing government entities in the executive and organizational efforts to promote a successful and safe adoption journey for emerging technologies by clarifying the means that contribute to the control, governance and use of technologies without limiting creativity.

This guideline applies to government entities to support in the journey of adopting emerging technologies, with the aim of developing their e-services and/or their internal systems, which in turn improve the productivity of the government entities, and thus this is reflected in an increase in beneficiary satisfaction.

The enclosed guideline defines the most prominent ET that fit government entities specifically and the Kingdom's established strategy and vision generally. Hence, the guideline defines and illustrates the impact of their adoption in the Kingdom from several aspects and provides some examples and applications that could inspire their adoption in the government entities. Essentially, the provided examples are intended to encourage the adoption of the targeted ET and support the existing efforts such that ET would yield the expected positive outcomes by highlighting how each of the ET could be integrated.

as the concept of ET is constantly and rapidly evolving, the enclosed guideline supports its adoption by identifying the different factors that need to be cautiously considered from multiple perspectives. Hence, government entities would be able to organize their efforts to ensure that they yield the intended outcomes while proactively preventing unintended consequences that could arise from unforeseen risks.
As the factors associated with ET adoption have been identified, the enclosed guideline proposes an adoption framework to provide incremental and comprehensive guidance to establish and enable the execution of an effective adoption strategy. Thus, the ET adoption framework inherently considers key milestones, factors, and constraints to minimize the potential of unforeseen early adoption risks and maximize the associated opportunities that could arise accordingly and promote a competitive advantage. 

This guideline targets government entities as well as the private sector that works as a developer or operator of businesses related to digital government.

For more information; Check the digital version.