Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco, said that the Middle East and North Africa are transitioning from investment in artificial intelligence to the implementation of actual projects, considering secure infrastructure, sovereign artificial intelligence, and skills development to be the core pillars for building a digital economy capable of keeping pace with the next phase.
Robbins made the remarks in a post on his official LinkedIn page following a tour that included Riyadh, Cairo, and Rabat, during which he met with governments, partners, and Cisco teams in the three countries. The tour included participation in the LEAP 2026 conference in Riyadh alongside HUMAIN and AMD, where it was announced that the AI infrastructure built on Cisco networks had become active in the Kingdom, less than a year after the companies announced their intention to cooperate.
Different Developments in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Morocco
In Saudi Arabia, Cisco set a goal of reaching 500,000 learners through the Cisco Networking Academy program. In Egypt, Robbins noted that more than 670,000 Egyptians had received training through the academy, while the company aims to train 3,000 new instructors.
He said that cooperation with Egypt had resulted in the implementation or launch of 19 international digital acceleration projects, in addition to the signing of two new agreements with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, focusing on artificial intelligence and skills development.
In Morocco, Robbins’s first visit coincided with the launch of the implementation of the first Cisco Digital Acceleration (CDA) project in partnership with the International University of Rabat, with the project set to begin soon. He also referred to the launch of the Kingdom’s latest skills development programs.
What Is Changing in Practice?
What stands out about this tour is that the discussion was not limited to the scale of investments or future plans, but included indicators that some initiatives had moved into operation or implementation, such as the activation of infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the launch of the CDA project in Morocco. This means that measuring progress in the region is gradually shifting toward what is actually built and used, rather than announcements alone.
At the same time, the post does not provide technical details about the active infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, such as its scope of use, capabilities, or beneficiary entities. It also does not clarify the nature or timelines of the 19 digital projects in Egypt. Therefore, the figures remain indicators of the scale of the announced cooperation, but are not sufficient on their own to assess the initiatives’ operational outcomes or economic impact.
The Three Pillars
According to the post, Robbins’s meetings concluded with three common pillars: providing secure infrastructure, developing the concept of sovereign artificial intelligence, and preparing the workforce with the necessary skills. Cisco presents long-term partnerships as the means of accelerating these pillars, with a clear focus on cooperation among governments, companies, and educational institutions.
certi.news analysis: The announced developments reveal that the region’s artificial intelligence race is entering a more practical phase, but assessing its success will require additional data on the projects that have entered service, data governance and sovereignty mechanisms, and the actual results of training programs. The information currently available confirms the expansion of partnerships and the launch of some projects, but does not yet establish their full impact on markets or the workforce.