A Literature Review on Digital Transformation Challenges: Saudi Vision 2030

Digital transformation has progressed from an aspirational theme to a system-wide mandate in Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, where it supports economic diversification, innovation and sustainable development. This literature review combines up-to-date research and policy sources to analyze the principal challenges that govern digital transformation in the Kingdom. The review uncovers structural and organizational barriers, including institutional resistance to change, capability and skills gaps, cybersecurity risk, interoperability and data governance complexity, procurement constraints and uneven infrastructure readiness level across regions. It then looks at the implications of these challenges in terms of sectoral priorities by the Government, the health care sector, the educational sector, the tourism sector, SMEs and small enterprises in particular - some of the progress, some of the bottlenecks. Finally, it sets out evidence-informed recommendations for policymakers and leaders to mitigate risks while ensuring the implementation of all this in line with the outcomes of Vision 2030 through coherent governance, secure adoption of the cloud, human-centered talent pipelines, and human-centered service design. By compiling information from credible sources since 2018, the paper provides an integrated map of barriers and levers that may be used to strengthen the digital ecosystem in Saudi Arabia for the next phase of Vision 2030.

digital transformation, sustainable development, innovation

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