Zahid Group and Infor Launch AI-Driven Centre of Excellence in Saudi Arabia

Malaz Madani

Last updated 15-09-2025

4 min

Zahid Group partners with Infor to establish a Centre of Excellence in Jeddah.

The centre focuses on AI, process mining, and automation for industry transformation.

Startups and mid-sized businesses gain access to training, workshops, and innovation clinics.

Process mining tools will enhance business efficiency by analysing daily operations for improvements.

Zahid and Infor aim to energise Saudi tech talent and support Vision 2030 goals.

When I think about the way Saudi Arabia is pushing ahead with its Vision 2030, it’s hard not to be impressed – the country isn’t just dreaming big, it’s actually rolling up its sleeves and cracking on with proper transformation. Just this week, a fresh chapter unfolded as Zahid Group, a well-known name in the region’s industrial landscape, shook hands with global software firm Infor to launch a Centre of Excellence in Jeddah. That’s not just a fancy title; this hub promises to fast-track Zahid Group’s digital ambitions while spreading knowledge and best practice throughout the Kingdom. Spot on for the kind of collaborative energy we always try to spotlight here at Arageek.

The plan is to create something more than a typical tech incubator. With the new centre, Zahid and Infor are getting down to brass tacks on tackling real life industry issues – with artificial intelligence, process mining, and automation leading the charge. If you ask me, all this talk about “AI for transformation” can sound like a bit of a faff, but Zahid Group has some serious form in the digital game, having worked on enablement projects since the 1980s (not many in the region can claim that).

What’s exciting – at least from the perspective of MENA startups and mid-sized businesses I meet through Arageek – is that the centre won’t be only for giant corporations. By opening up training, workshops, and innovation clinics to partners and even vendors, the CoE could well become a breeding ground for bright new ideas. It’s about building know-how locally and ditching the old model of always counting on overseas experts to provide solutions.

To give a concrete example, there are plans to use process mining tools in live business environments – that means, instead of sketching out theories on a whiteboard, they’ll actually trawl through day-to-day operations to find weaknesses and polish up efficiency. And there’s more: Zahid reckons AI could be a game-changer in planning for spare parts, so there’s less waste and much sharper predictions.

Haytham W. Zahid, the group’s CEO, puts it plainly enough – for Zahid, digital isn’t just a buzzword, it’s a legacy. He points out that partnering with Infor will help not only their own operations but also contribute broadly to the Kingdom’s economic goals. I reckon he’s right; when big players step up like this, it can energise the whole ecosystem – especially if the knowledge is shared widely. On the flip side, it’ll be interesting to see how the centre avoids just being a showcase for heavily branded, cookie-cutter solutions that miss the genuine needs of Saudi industries.

Infor, meanwhile, brings its Velocity Suite to the table. It’s basically a toolkit for process innovation, loaded with AI and robotic process automation, all wrapped up in the company’s cloud-first philosophy. Can these tools really cut costs and boost productivity at scale? That remains to be seen, but there’s proper technical muscle involved, not just pretty slides.

For those new to Zahid Group: the company is a heavyweight with a presence in more than a dozen sectors and 33 countries, and it’s earned top marks as an employer in the region. Infor, for its part, is behind the scenes in over 60,000 organisations globally. When two operators like these team up, there’s undoubtedly potential for impact – if, of course, they keep their wits about them and keep innovating, and don’t just rest on old laurels.

All in all, this looks like a step in the right direction. As someone who’s seen quite a few “centre of excellence” launches that didn’t amount to much more than ribbon-cutting, I’m cautiously optimistic this one will actually move the needle. If that happens, it won’t just set Zahid Group apart; it could give tech talent across Saudi Arabia and the wider region a genuine leg up. And, well… we could do with more of that, couldn’t we?

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