Mini MBA: Artificial Intelligence & Digital Transformation

5-Day Professional Training Course | MADT5001

KSA · GCC · Africa

Course Overview

This intensive 5-day Mini MBA programme on Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation equips senior professionals, functional leaders, and aspiring executives with the strategic intelligence, business architecture frameworks, technology governance competencies, and transformational leadership capabilities needed to lead AI-driven organisational change with the rigour, breadth, and executive confidence that the boardroom demands. The Mini MBA format is deliberately chosen — because AI and digital transformation are not technology problems requiring technology solutions. They are business strategy problems requiring leaders who understand technology deeply enough to direct it, govern it, and extract sustainable competitive value from it without being captured by vendor hype, paralysed by complexity, or outmanoeuvred by competitors who moved faster. Across Saudi Arabia where Vision 2030's digital economy ambitions require a generation of executives who can simultaneously drive nationalisation, manage AI adoption, and compete on global quality standards, GCC organisations where the intersection of sovereign wealth investment, digital infrastructure maturity, and talent scarcity creates a leadership challenge of extraordinary complexity, and African economies where digital transformation is not a luxury strategic option but the primary mechanism through which businesses achieve the scale, efficiency, and market reach that physical infrastructure alone cannot deliver — the demand for executives who command the full Mini MBA perspective on AI and digital transformation has never been more urgent or more consequential. This programme integrates AI strategy, digital business models, data governance, change leadership, ethics, and financial performance management into a single cohesive executive development experience that leaves participants not merely informed about AI and digital transformation but genuinely equipped to lead it. Aligned with leading business school digital transformation curricula, MIT Sloan's digital business frameworks, and the executive AI competency standards emerging from the World Economic Forum, this programme is the definitive executive development experience for the AI age.

Keywords: Mini MBA AI Digital Transformation Saudi Arabia | Executive AI Leadership Course GCC | Digital Business Strategy Africa | AI Strategy Executive Training Riyadh · Dubai · Nairobi · Cairo

Course Information

Target Audience

• C-suite executives and board members governing AI and digital transformation strategy

• Senior directors and vice presidents leading digital business units or transformation programmes

• Strategy and innovation officers designing AI-enabled business model evolution

• Chief Digital Officers and Chief Technology Officers requiring executive business strategy grounding

• Government ministers, senior officials, and public sector executives leading national digital transformation in KSA and GCC

• Investment professionals evaluating AI and digital transformation capability in portfolio companies

• Entrepreneurs and founders scaling AI-native businesses across African growth markets

• High-potential senior managers identified for executive succession in digitally transforming organisations

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, participants will be able to:

• Develop and communicate a coherent AI and digital transformation strategy aligned to organisational purpose, competitive position, and stakeholder expectations

• Evaluate digital business model innovations, platform economics, and AI-driven value creation opportunities across their industry

• Govern AI and data assets with the rigour, ethics, and regulatory awareness that executive accountability demands

• Lead organisational transformation through the cultural, structural, and capability changes that AI adoption requires at scale

• Build the financial case for AI and digital investment in terms that satisfy CFO scrutiny, board governance, and investor expectations

• Navigate the specific AI strategy, regulatory, and talent landscape of KSA, GCC, and African executive environments

Learning Methods

5-Day Programme Outline

Day 1 — AI & Digital Strategy: The Executive Framework

1. The digital transformation imperative in 2026: the competitive, regulatory, and economic forces making AI and digital transformation non-negotiable across KSA, GCC, and African industries

2. AI and digital strategy frameworks: MIT Sloan's digital transformation model, the three strategic positions — digital optimizer, digital innovator, and digital disruptor — and how executives choose the right ambition for their context

3. Digital business model innovation: platform models, data monetisation, AI-native product design, and the business model shifts that separate digital leaders from digital laggards across every industry

4. Competitive intelligence in the AI age: monitoring competitor AI adoption, identifying digital disruption threats, and the strategic early warning systems that prevent executives from being surprised by technology-driven competitive shifts

5. Vision 2030 and GCC digital strategy alignment: how AI and digital transformation strategies must interface with national digital economy priorities, sector regulators, and sovereign investment mandates across the region

6. Workshop: Participants conduct a digital strategy position assessment for their own organisation — evaluating current digital maturity, competitive digital threats, and strategic transformation ambition across the MIT Sloan framework dimensions

Day 2 — AI Business Models, Data Strategy & Platform Economics

1. How AI creates business value: the five AI value creation mechanisms — automation, augmentation, prediction, personalisation, and platform intelligence — and how executives design organisations to capture each

2. Data as strategic asset: data strategy design, data monetisation models, data partnership frameworks, and the executive decisions that determine whether an organisation's data accumulation translates into competitive advantage or regulatory liability

3. Platform economics and network effects: the business logic of platform models, winner-take-most dynamics, and the platform strategy decisions that are restructuring industries from financial services to healthcare across GCC and African markets

4. AI product and service innovation: designing AI-native products, AI-enhanced service delivery, and the innovation portfolio management approach that balances core business AI optimisation with adjacent and transformational AI bets

5. Digital ecosystem strategy: building and participating in digital ecosystems, API economy positioning, and the partnership and acquisition strategies through which organisations access AI capabilities they cannot build internally

6. Case study: participants analyse a regional digital business model transformation — a GCC bank's AI-driven business model evolution, a Saudi government service digitalisation, or an African platform business scaling through AI — extracting transferable executive lessons

Day 3 — Data Governance, AI Ethics & Regulatory Leadership

1. Executive data governance: data ownership, stewardship structures, data quality accountability, and the governance frameworks that make data a reliable strategic asset rather than an organisational liability

2. AI governance at board level: the board's role in AI oversight, AI risk appetite statements, algorithmic accountability, and the governance mechanisms that keep AI deployment aligned with organisational values and stakeholder expectations

3. Responsible AI for executives: bias, fairness, transparency, and explainability as executive responsibilities — the reputational, legal, and ethical dimensions of AI deployment that boards and senior leaders cannot delegate to technical teams

4. The global AI regulatory landscape in 2026: the EU AI Act's extraterritorial implications, Saudi Arabia's AI regulatory framework under SDAIA, GCC data protection evolution, and African AI governance developments — the regulatory intelligence that executive AI strategy requires

5. Cybersecurity and AI risk: the specific cybersecurity threats that AI adoption introduces, the executive risk management response, and the board oversight responsibilities that AI-era cybersecurity demands

6. Workshop: Participants design an AI governance framework for their organisation — covering board oversight structure, AI risk appetite, ethics review process, regulatory compliance obligations, and incident response governance

Day 4 — Transformation Leadership, Culture & Capability

1. Leading digital transformation: the executive behaviours, leadership styles, and organisational design decisions that determine whether AI and digital transformation programmes deliver strategic value or consume resources without changing anything that matters

2. Digital culture transformation: from risk-averse hierarchy to learning organisation — the cultural shifts that AI adoption requires and the executive interventions that accelerate rather than resist them

3. Talent strategy for the AI age: the capabilities organisations need, the talent markets they must access, the reskilling investments they must make, and the nationalisation obligations they must satisfy simultaneously across KSA and GCC transformation programmes

4. Organisational design for AI: the structural choices — centralised AI centres of excellence, federated AI capability, AI-embedded business units — and the governance models that match AI organisational design to strategic intent

5. Change management at executive scale: the communication strategies, coalition building approaches, and resistance management techniques that move entire organisations through the discomfort of AI-driven transformation without losing the talent, trust, and operational performance that transformation depends upon

6. Executive simulation: participants lead a boardroom presentation and defence of their AI transformation strategy — presenting to a panel playing the roles of sceptical board members, a cautious CFO, and a demanding shareholder representative

Day 5 — Financial Performance, Investment Governance & Executive Strategy Capstone

1. The financial architecture of AI investment: capital allocation frameworks for AI and digital transformation, build vs. buy vs. partner decision logic, and the portfolio investment approach that manages AI investment risk while maintaining transformation momentum

2. AI ROI measurement and reporting: the metrics, measurement frameworks, and executive reporting standards that demonstrate AI investment returns to boards, investors, and government stakeholders across KSA, GCC, and African regulatory environments

3. AI and digital transformation M&A: evaluating AI capability in acquisition targets, digital due diligence frameworks, post-merger AI integration, and the strategic acquisition logic that accelerates transformation when organic development is too slow

4. The future executive agenda: generative AI's next capability horizon, autonomous AI systems, AI-driven organisational design, and the strategic questions that executives must begin answering now to remain competitive through the remainder of the decade

5. Executive AI leadership in KSA, GCC, and Africa: the specific leadership challenges, stakeholder expectations, and strategic opportunities that define the AI executive agenda across the region's most consequential industries and institutions

6. Capstone: Participants present their boardroom-ready AI and Digital Transformation Strategy — covering strategic position, business model innovation, data and AI governance, transformation roadmap, financial case, and leadership plan — for executive peer and faculty review

Regional Relevance

This programme is specifically designed for the executive AI and digital transformation leadership challenges of KSA, GCC, and African markets. Content integrates Saudi Aramco's digital transformation leadership model, the Public Investment Fund's AI investment strategy across its portfolio, NEOM's AI-native city governance framework, ADNOC's integrated digital operations leadership, the UAE's whole-of-government AI strategy, and the digital business model innovations of Africa's most successful technology companies including Jumia, M-Pesa, Flutterwave, and Safaricom — drawing the executive lessons that translate across industries, sectors, and national contexts to create genuinely transferable strategic leadership capability.

Assessment & Certification

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