{"id":57798,"date":"2026-07-31T00:36:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/?p=57798"},"modified":"2026-07-31T00:36:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:36:50","slug":"a-guinness-world-record-for-ai-a-vision-2030-call-to-build","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/a-guinness-world-record-for-ai-a-vision-2030-call-to-build\/","title":{"rendered":"A Guinness World Record for AI. A Vision 2030 Call to Build."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>The Kingdom has proved that AI capability can scale. The next mandate is to turn a record-breaking cohort into a builder economy, and to change how institutions recognize talent.<\/b><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_57799\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-57799\" style=\"width: 687px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"57799\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/a-guinness-world-record-for-ai-a-vision-2030-call-to-build\/roy-headshot\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/roy-headshot.jpeg\" data-orig-size=\"687,1024\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"roy headshot\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/roy-headshot.jpeg\" class=\"wp-image-57799 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/roy-headshot.jpeg\" alt=\"Roy Baladi\" width=\"687\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/roy-headshot.jpeg 687w, https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/roy-headshot-201x300.jpeg 201w, https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/roy-headshot-60x89.jpeg 60w, https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/roy-headshot-600x894.jpeg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 687px) 100vw, 687px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-57799\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roy Baladi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>By Roy Baladi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Kanz<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every era chooses a shorthand for talent. The industrial economy trusted the credential. The internet economy trusted the resume and the profile. The AI economy will demand something more direct: proof of work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I believe the countries and companies that lead this era will be those that discover, trust and mobilize builders faster than everyone else. They will not ask only who has used artificial intelligence. They will ask who has turned it into something useful.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That distinction matters because AI is changing production faster than most labor markets are changing how they recognize ability. Degrees, job titles and years of experience still have value, but they remain proxies. A working product is evidence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When natural language can become an application, an agent or an automated workflow, the defining question is no longer simply, \u201cCan you code?\u201d It is, \u201cCan you identify a real problem, frame it clearly, build a solution, test it and improve it?\u201d That is not a minor technical shift. It is a new definition of economic capability.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>A record, and a mandate<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On July 15, 2026, Kanz and Saudi Arabia\u2019s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development set the Guinness World Records title for the most users in an artificial intelligence video lesson, with 14,075 people participating. Across the eight-day hackathon, 51,693 people registered from 170 countries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A record proves that people arrived. What they built proves that a new economy can begin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Participants submitted 4,450 AI projects. Of those, 3,428 became published digital products with links that anyone, including an employer, can open and test. That is the number I keep returning to. The record demonstrated reach. The products demonstrated conversion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saudi Arabia formed the largest national cohort, with more than 19,000 registrants and more than 1,900 submitted projects. This is Vision 2030 in its most consequential form: not a population waiting to consume the future, but a population equipped to build it.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_57800\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-57800\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"57800\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/a-guinness-world-record-for-ai-a-vision-2030-call-to-build\/roy-conference-panel\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Roy-Conference-panel.jpeg\" data-orig-size=\"1024,682\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Roy Conference panel\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Roy Conference panel&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Roy Conference panel&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Roy-Conference-panel.jpeg\" class=\"size-full wp-image-57800\" src=\"https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Roy-Conference-panel.jpeg\" alt=\"Roy Conference panel\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Roy-Conference-panel.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Roy-Conference-panel-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Roy-Conference-panel-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Roy-Conference-panel-60x40.jpeg 60w, https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Roy-Conference-panel-720x480.jpeg 720w, https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Roy-Conference-panel-600x400.jpeg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-57800\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roy Conference panel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>Build a market around proof<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our ambition at Kanz is larger than a training event. We want to help build a labor market in which every person can show what they can create, every employer can inspect that evidence, and every institution can translate learning into opportunity. The resume will remain, but it should no longer have the final word.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Imagine one million job seekers whose portfolios contain working AI products, not just lists of skills. Imagine employers searching for demonstrated judgment, problem-solving and execution instead of filtering first by pedigree. Imagine talent becoming visible before it has the perfect title, network or geography. That is not simply recruitment technology. It is mobility infrastructure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hackathon also showed what serious partnership looks like. The Ministry made the challenge national. The Lebanese American University Academy of Continuing Education made achievement legible. Lebanon\u2019s Ministry of Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence through NUM\u016a, together with Berytech, the Hariri Foundation, Forward MENA, Classera, C.XSEED Ventures and Voice of Lebanon, made access travel. Technology partners including Replit, Google, Anthropic, ElevenLabs, Magnific, Suno, n8n and HUMAIN made creation immediate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leadership is not the number of logos around an initiative. It is the ability to align public purpose, academic credibility, community reach and technology around a measurable outcome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The invitation at LEAP<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From August 31 to September 3, Riyadh will host LEAP 2026, where Kanz has been shortlisted for Rocket Fuel, the event\u2019s flagship startup pitch competition with a $1 million equity-free prize fund. We will arrive with more than a pitch. We will arrive with a proposition for the AI economy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every major AI initiative should be judged not only by attendance, investment or tool adoption, but by the builders it produces, the products they publish, the businesses they create and the people who move into work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Employers should open the portfolio before dismissing the candidate. Educators should make publishing part of learning. Investors should look beyond familiar founder profiles to domain experts newly able to prototype. Institutions should count verified outputs and economic transitions, not participation alone. And builders should release the work. Unpublished potential cannot change a market.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At Kanz, our commitment is to keep building the infrastructure that connects proof to opportunity. The Guinness World Records title honors what a remarkable coalition achieved. Vision 2030 gives that achievement its larger direction.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saudi Arabia has shown that it can convene the AI future at record scale. Now we must give that future a market. At LEAP, the invitation is simple: do not come only to see what AI can do. Come ready to discover who can build with it, back them, hire them and put their work into the world.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kingdom has proved that AI capability can scale. The next mandate is to turn a record-breaking cohort into a builder economy, and to change how institutions recognize talent. By Roy Baladi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Kanz Every era chooses a shorthand for talent. The industrial economy trusted the credential. The internet economy trusted the resume and the profile. The AI economy will demand something more direct: proof of work. I believe the countries and companies that lead this era will be those that discover, trust and mobilize builders faster than everyone else. They will not ask only who<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":57801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Guinness World Record for AI. 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Launched in Saudi Arabia to support Vision 2030, Kanz helps employers identify talent through verified skills, portfolios and practical work. Previously, Baladi was Global Head of Marketplace at SmartRecruiters, helping scale it from pre-revenue to unicorn status, and worked at LearnVest before its acquisition by Northwestern Mutual. He holds degrees in computer science, mathematics and finance from Virginia Tech.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thesauditimes.net\\\/en\\\/author\\\/roy-baladi\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Guinness World Record for AI. 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