Humain partners with Ernst & Young to launch Saudi Arabia’s first AI-native business outsourcing service, with intelligent agents reshaping corporate operations

Business process outsourcing services in Saudi Arabia are moving toward a comprehensive restructuring, following the announcement by Humain (HUMAIN), a subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund specializing in delivering an integrated AI infrastructure, of a partnership with global professional services firm Ernst & Young (EY) to develop the first fully AI-native business outsourcing service in the Saudi market. The partnership aims to shift outsourcing from merely delegating routine tasks to external human staff to an integrated operational model in which intelligent agents, advanced automation, and sophisticated analytics manage daily operations alongside specialized human expertise.

The partnership is built on the Humain ONE platform, an integrated agent platform developed by Humain to enable organizations to deploy automated workflows driven by intelligent agents across various administrative and operational functions. Under the agreement, Humain provides the infrastructure and core technologies for the agent system, while Ernst & Young supports solution development and commercialisation, leveraging its sector knowledge and specialised expertise in accounting, financial audit, tax and corporate consulting. The initiative aims to embed AI throughout end-to-end business process chains rather than confining it to isolated workflows, thereby reducing operational complexity, accelerating digital transformation and protecting companies' existing technology investments.

Tariq Amin, CEO of Humain, affirmed that AI is no longer merely an add-on tool, but has become the central operational layer for organizations."We are building an operational model in which intelligent agents, automation and human expertise function as an integrated entity, to transfer this system and scale it widely from Saudi Arabia to the world."This approach reflects a clear strategic direction to build operational services supported by the Public Investment Fund’s local infrastructure, shifting from consuming external solutions to exporting corporate models based on independent agents.

Ernst & Young believes that sustainable corporate value does not stem from technology alone, but from companies' ability to apply it confidently and reliably within critical processes; Raj Sharma, the firm's global managing partner for growth and innovation, explained that the next phase will focus on helping organizations redesign their operating mechanisms and build a resilient transformation that generates ongoing value. In the same vein, Abdulaziz Al-Suweilem, chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young for the Middle East and North Africa, noted that the agreement rests on fully leveraging the firm's professional capabilities to enhance the Humain ONE platform and support the joint commercial transformation objectives.

This transformation has immediate implications for the business sector in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf more broadly. Companies, financial sectors and government entities in the region have traditionally relied on conventional outsourcing models that depend on a high density of human labor to manage contact centers, support functions and routine audits. With intelligent-agent platforms replacing the old models, procurement and technology officers' contracting criteria are shifting: measurement is no longer based on labor hours or headcount, but on the efficiency of automated workflow streams and delivery speed. This shift requires operations and digital-transformation leaders in the region to be prepared to manage autonomous agent systems and audit their outputs, rather than merely monitoring external human teams.

"Redefining outsourcing through intelligent agents imposes strict governance standards that ensure the accuracy of automated financial and tax decisions."With players the size of the Public Investment Fund entering in partnership with major global consulting firms, native AI-enabled processes become a new benchmark for corporate competitiveness in the region, putting traditional outsourcing firms faced with an inevitable choice to either upgrade their digital capabilities or exit the pool of large-scale contracts.