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posted on Jul. 23, 2025 at 8:00 amSep 25, 2025

PIF-backed HUMAIN’s Acting CMO on Saudi Arabia as a global AI powerhouse

posted on Jul. 23, 2025 at 8:00 amSep 25, 2025

HUMAIN's Steve Plimsoll talks to Campaign Middle East about development of AI infrastructure and Arabic LLMs in Saudi Arabia, as well as the importance of data integrity, used cases and cultural nuance for the future of marketing.

Steve Plimsoll, Chief Strategy Officer and Acting Chief Marketing Officer, HUMAIN on AI in Saudi Arabia

Steve Plimsoll, Chief Strategy Officer and Acting Chief Marketing Officer, HUMAIN

As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly reshapes industries worldwide, Saudi Arabia has set its sights on becoming an AI powerhouse, positioning itself as a global leader at the heart of the transforming AI-driven economy.

At the heart of this movement stands HUMAIN – a PIF-backed AI company envisioned by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud to place the Kingdom, and the greater Middle East region, front and centre in its development of AI infrastructure, Arabic large language models (LLMs) and cloud services.

At the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in July 2025, Campaign Middle East spoke exclusively to Steve Plimsoll, Chief Strategy Officer and Acting Chief

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Tags:Acting Chief Marketing Officer Advertising AI applications arabic Arabic LLMs Artificial Intelligence behaviours Chief strategy officer creative Culture customs data data centres data integrity generative AI heritage HUMAIN intent large language models LLM models marketing PIF preferences Public Investment Fund Steve Plimsoll tokens tradition used cases

the authorAnup Oommen

Anup Oommen is the Editor of Campaign Middle East at Motivate Media Group, a well-reputed moderator, and a multiple award-winning journalist with more than 15 years of experience at some of the most reputable and credible global news organisations, including Reuters, CNN, and Motivate Media Group. As the Editor of Campaign Middle East, Anup heads market-leading coverage of advertising, media, marketing, PR, events and experiential, digital, the wider creative industries, and more, through the brand’s digital, print, events, directories, podcast and video verticals. As such he’s a key stakeholder in the Campaign Global brand, the world’s leading authority for the advertising, marketing and media industries, which was first published in the UK in 1968.