Cairo: Saudi Arabia's growing business landscape has encouraged regional and global companies to establish a local presence in the growing market.
Egyptian artificial intelligence startup DXwand is leaving no stone unturned to get closer to its customers with a team on the ground.
In an interview with Arab News, DXwand CEO Ahmed Mahmoud shared the company's strategic vision of establishing a local office in Riyadh by the middle of the year.
We have already started the formalities and got the permission from MISA (Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia). The exact location is still up for debate, but it should be in the wonderful capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh.
One step closer
Mahmoud stressed the importance of delivering value and rapid impact with quick wins, and also wishes to demonstrate the company's distinct position in technology and long-term ambitions in the partnership.
“This goal is planned to be achieved with local partners, in technology and other industries, to ensure our success,” he said. We currently have several partners in Saudi Arabia and our plan is to multiply this number by the end of 2024.
DXwand's development strategy is fully aligned with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, focusing on economic diversification and digital transformation.
“Focusing on influencing Saudi Arabia's focus areas in Vision 2030, particularly in economic diversification, quality of life, environmental sustainability, and culture and entertainment, we have set long-term goals and related initiatives to support and influence these goals,” said Mahmoud. areas.”
He further explained, “DXwand's expansion always includes local partners that are focused on industry or technology builders, resulting in greater contributions to each country's economy, providing faster and deeper impact, and with local talent and resources that culture and understand the local, it achieves amazing results. It hurts so good.”
One of these partners includes the Persian Gulf business development platform AstroLabs, which aims to leverage DXwand's strong presence in the US, UAE and Egypt.
Mahmoud emphasized the importance of cooperation with official institutions to improve the services of his department.
“Cooperation with the Saudi government is a key cornerstone to realizing our development vision, and we are identifying potential areas of cooperation and relevant government institutions,” he said.
This collaboration is intended to support DXwand's alignment with the country's evolving regulatory environment.
Our solutions are aligned with the country's goals to improve digital infrastructure, improve government services and foster innovation.
Ahmed Mahmoud, CEO of DXwand
Regulation of artificial intelligence is an emerging area not only for Saudi Arabia but also worldwide. We believe in early engagement with regulators so that both parties benefit from understanding risks and establishing proactive mitigation measures. Mahmoud said: We believe that AI companies should be responsible for creating safe AI technology and ensuring compliance with privacy and safety standards worldwide, regardless of regulations.
“This will help us adapt to any regulatory requirements in Saudi Arabia as we proactively mitigate risks and ensure a safe experience for our community,” he added.
Mahmoud said the company is growing several times annually from 2020 and he is looking to maintain this trajectory along with delivering two nationwide impact plans per year.
He added that Saudi Arabia will be a key geography for one of these national impact initiatives in 2024. “We believe that Saudi Arabia needs the elements of success to deliver not only one of our national initiatives, but perhaps even our best.” said.
Mahmoud also revealed that the company has three new products in the pipeline that use their generative AI technology, although details are not yet available.
“With the help of our manufacturing partners, we have three new products in the pipeline that use the same AI technology as our generator. “We cannot share any further details about them at this time, while we will announce them with the relevant partners soon.”
Mahmoud emphasized that expansion into Saudi Arabia is critical to DXwand's strategy due to factors such as alignment with Vision 2030, market opportunities and government support.
He further explained the alignment of DXwand's AI solutions with Vision 2030 ambitions for economic diversification and digital transformation.
“Our solutions are aligned with the country's goals to improve digital infrastructure, improve government services and boost innovation,” he said.
He added that significant investments in sectors such as healthcare, education, financial services and tourism create profitable opportunities for DXwand.
Mahmoud said that the government's support for the knowledge-based economy and technology investment is also in line with his company's goals.
Mahmoud explained that initiatives to attract foreign investment and create a favorable business environment make Saudi Arabia a strategic location that provides access to other Middle Eastern markets and acts as a springboard for regional development.
Saudi Arabia's tech-savvy population provides a viable market for AI-based solutions. “This population is receptive to adopting new technologies and creating an environment conducive to AI solutions,” he said.
Business basics
In terms of funding, DXwand has raised $6.7 million since its founding, with the most recent $4 million Series A round closing in December 2023. This investment will establish DXwand in Saudi Arabia, strengthening strategic partnerships with local partners, educational institutions and strategic customers. .
Mahmoud said: “We plan to use a portion of this fund to activate the activities of DXwand's first establishment in Saudi Arabia and strengthen strategic partnerships to create an ecosystem that will both meet DXwand's ambitions for growth and with Saudi Arabia to influence and Accelerate the implementation of its 2030 vision and impact results across the country.”
Addressing industry challenges in Saudi Arabia, Mahmoud discussed the hype of productive AI and DXwand's approach to finding specific solutions.
He noted that DXwand's platform, DXP, was designed to solve issues such as high language model costs, lack of managed accuracy measurement, and short time to market.
“The DXwand DXP platform delivers more than 90 percent cost optimization using low LLM offerings, while increasing accuracy by more than 30 percent using a tool that tests to measure and enables RAG (Recovery Augmented Manufacturing) to easily optimize accuracy and cost.” .
DXwand operates on a subscription-based business model, selling its products with annual or monthly subscriptions tied to problem size, represented by call volume or user number.
Mehmood stated that DXwand is a profitable company with a sound financial model designed to ensure profitable unit economics.
The motivation for founding DXwand stems from Mahmoud's experience at Microsoft, where he saw the potential for AI investments focused on the cultural and linguistic needs of the region.
“This potential was untapped and tempted me to take a leap of faith and resign from such an internationally respected Silicon Valley giant to embark on the DXwand journey,” he said.
Key performance indicators for DXwand include LLM cost optimization, accuracy overtime, new signups, new contracts, new partners and time to market.
Mahmoud stressed the importance of carefully managing growth in Saudi Arabia to maintain reputation and customer experience.
“Specifically for Saudi Arabia, since we are still newly introduced, I am focusing on new partnerships, signing up new customers and their experience in cost and accuracy optimization,” he noted.
Mahmoud assesses the current market landscape in Saudi Arabia for AI and technology as it is rapidly evolving, with numerous opportunities and challenges.
He emphasized the Saudi government's leadership and investment in economic diversification, digital transformation, artificial intelligence and talent development.
“With government leadership and investment in economic diversification, digital transformation, artificial intelligence and talent development, we foresee a huge growth opportunity with such an emerging market with a significant GDP (gross domestic product) and population,” he said. do.
According to industry forecasts, Mahmoud predicts adoption will decline due to economic factors and operational costs of productive AI, which will impact their business cases. However, he sees this as an opportunity.
We anticipate that the decline in adoption will be driven by economic factors and the costs of exploiting productive AI and reflecting that in the business cases associated with them, which if you have a solution that can provide such a challenge, there is a good opportunity for the next year or two to Use this challenge. Technology with cost efficiency and ability to scale quickly.
