The initiative was announced during the Digital Learning Forum held at the center’s headquarters in Riyadh, bringing together education leaders, policymakers, and digital learning specialists from across the Kingdom.

The forum was held under the patronage of Education Minister Yousef bin Abdullah Al-Benyan, who also serves as chairman of the National eLearning Center’s board, underscoring the initiative’s national importance.

Multiversity is designed to strengthen cooperation between academic institutions and industry partners, enabling shared responsibility in developing future-ready academic and professional programs.

A core focus of the initiative is collaborative program development, allowing universities and private sector entities to co-design curricula aligned with evolving labor market needs.

Joint teaching models form another pillar of Multiversity, encouraging knowledge exchange between academic faculty and industry professionals to enrich classroom and virtual learning experiences.

The initiative also emphasizes the sharing of digital educational resources, aiming to reduce duplication, improve efficiency, and widen access to high-quality learning materials.

By integrating these elements, Multiversity seeks to enhance the overall effectiveness of higher education delivery while expanding access to flexible and technology-driven learning pathways.

The Digital Learning Forum also served as a platform to recognize excellence in digital education across the Kingdom, reflecting Saudi Arabia’s growing focus on measurable learning outcomes.

Institutions that demonstrated outstanding performance in the National Digital Learning Indicator for 2024–2025 were honored for their progress in digital learning and training.

This national indicator tracks the adoption, quality, and impact of digital education initiatives, offering insights into how institutions are adapting to new learning models.

Winners of the second edition of the Innovation Award in eLearning and Training were also recognized, celebrating creative and impactful approaches to skills development.

The award aims to foster innovation in digital education, enhance the quality of national skills programs, and acknowledge institutions contributing to human capability development.

As part of the forum’s outcomes, the Professional Certificate in AI Augmented Teaching was officially launched in partnership with the National Institute for Educational Professional Development.

The certificate is designed to equip educators with the skills needed to use artificial intelligence tools responsibly and effectively in teaching and assessment.

By focusing on ethical and practical AI integration, the program seeks to enhance learning quality while supporting educators in adapting to digital-first environments.

The event also marked the launch of the “Numo” platform, developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and affiliated with the National Institute for Educational Professional Development.

Numo aims to support continuous professional growth for teachers through integrated, personalized, and flexible online training pathways.

Together, Multiversity, the AI teaching certificate, and the Numo platform reflect a comprehensive approach to digital education reform in Saudi Arabia.

These initiatives align with the Kingdom’s broader vision of building a knowledge-based economy by modernizing education, strengthening industry linkages, and investing in human capital.

Among this new generation is 23-year-old Ahmed Al-Malki, founder of Minus Zero and lead researcher at NeuroVate Lab, whose work seeks to integrate artificial intelligence with psychology to support progress in education, talent development, and data-driven decision-making across the Kingdom.

Al-Malki created Minus Zero as a platform that analyzes language using AI to identify cognitive tendencies and emotional indicators. By bringing together psychology, linguistics, and data science, the system transforms written text into measurable insights that can reflect how individuals think, communicate, and process information.

He explains that the idea began with a simple goal — to create a tool capable of understanding human thought patterns in both Arabic and English, offering a bilingual model that reflects regional language and cultural nuance more accurately than imported systems traditionally used in assessments.

The platform originally started as a company research project but later grew into a broader initiative inspired by the BEGINING Scale, a psychological model developed by academic Dr. Ibrahim Al-Hussein. The aim was to translate conceptual traits such as creativity, balance, and decision-making into practical, data-driven measurements.

With a background in computer science, Al-Malki became interested in how linguistic choices reveal patterns of thought. Word selection, sentence structure, and written expression can provide subtle indicators of cognitive style, and this concept formed the foundation of the analytical approach used by Minus Zero.

Through the system, ordinary writing samples — such as student essays or professional reports — can be evaluated and presented in formats that may support education, recruitment, and performance development. Educators gain clearer insights into how students learn, while employers can identify strengths in communication, analysis, and problem-solving.

Al-Malki also noted a significant gap in the local market, as many widely used psychometric tools were developed abroad and rely heavily on English-language datasets that do not fully capture Arab cultural or linguistic contexts. Minus Zero attempts to address this shortage by offering an assessment model developed specifically to accommodate regional language patterns.

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into national strategies under Vision 2030, privacy and fairness remain major considerations. To support these priorities, the platform uses federated learning — a decentralized method that trains algorithms on encrypted data without transferring personal information, ensuring that user privacy is maintained throughout the process.

Al-Malki emphasizes that transparency and ethical data use are central to the project, noting that balanced datasets were used to minimize bias and to create fair, reliable outcomes for users across diverse backgrounds. The intention, he says, is to build AI systems that empower individuals rather than exploit their data.

Behind the development of Minus Zero is NeuroVate Lab, a division Al-Malki established within the Saudi tech company GCAD to connect cognitive science research with applied artificial intelligence. The lab aims to convert academic theories into practical tools for sectors including education, HR, and behavioral analytics.

NeuroVate Lab is currently testing pilot programs in schools and companies to explore tools that measure creativity, stress management, focus, and decision-making. Educators use the insights to adapt teaching methods, while organizations apply them to strengthen leadership, teamwork, and workplace communication.

Al-Malki observes that participants often begin with limited expectations, but once their data is visualized, they recognize how closely the patterns reflect real aspects of their mindset, balance, and emotional state. This reaction reinforces the potential of AI-driven psychological insights to support self-awareness and personal development.

His long-term vision is to expand the use of cognitive AI tools across Saudi educational and employment systems, enabling individuals to maintain dynamic profiles that grow as their skills and behaviors evolve. According to Al-Malki, such tools could help identify creative thinkers, future leaders, and emerging talent from an early stage.

As Saudi Arabia continues to invest in innovation and future-ready skills, young researchers like Al-Malki illustrate the critical role local talent plays in shaping the Kingdom’s technological landscape. Through initiatives that blend AI with cultural and linguistic relevance, these efforts contribute not only to new digital tools but also to ideas that reflect the region’s identity and aspirations.