Monday 20 / October / 2025
Muscat: A summit on research and educational technology, codenamed OTS 2025, is being organised on Monday and and on Tuesday by Oman Research and Education Network (OMREN), at Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The summit focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) as a driving force for transforming education and research, as part of national efforts to promote digital transition and innovation across vital sectors.
The opening ceremony of the summit was held under the auspices of Dr. Rahma Ibrahim Al Mahrouqi, Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation.
OTS 2025 summit seeks to encourage innovation, enhance cooperation in the field of research, support the exchange of ideas and expertise, offer new insights and propose practical recommendations that would drive development in education and research at the national level.
The event also highlights the best global practices in using AI technologies to improve the quality of education and enhance the efficiency of academic and research systems.
Najah Mohammed Al Rashidi, Director General of the Innovation Centre at the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, underlined the Ministry’s drive to enable educational and research institutions to use AI in many areas, including the development of educational curricula and the analysis of learning outcomes and the motivation of applied research. The aim is to groom a generation of national cadres who are capable of leading change in the field of research and education, she added.
A guest of honour at the OTS 2025 summit, Dr. Abdullah Sharaf Al Ghamdi, Chairman of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), delivered a speech in which he highlighted relevant indicators in Saudi Arabia, their sources of inspiration, their evolution and the Kingdom's future approaches to artificial intelligence.
He also outlined the Kingdom's efforts to prepare a “National Occupational Standard Framework for Data and Artificial Intelligence” and its legislative and regulatory framework. His presentation also touched on SDAIA’s key initiatives in the fields of technical leadership and social responsibility.
For his part, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology for Communications and Information Technology, Dr. Ali Amer Al Shidhani, spoke about the efforts made by the "National Programme for Artificial Intelligence(AI) andAdvanced Digital Technologies" in supporting Oman’s national digital transition.
The OTS 2025 summit also saw the participation of Marc-Antoine Delac, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Montreal, Canada, who is also an expert in AI ethics at the UNESCO.
Prof. Marc-Antoine Delac presented paper titled "Learning and Teaching in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence." In his paper, he discussed the role of AI promoting education by generating ideas, personalising learning through virtual tutors and enhancing practical training. In the meantime, he highlighted three major challenges of relevance: unreliability, loss of skills and lack of authenticity.
The first day of the summit included two sessions that focused on the potential of AI in developing the system of education. Its first session dealt with related technologies, legislation, capacity building and key factors driving the integration of AI into educational environments.
The second session, titled "Implications of Applying AI in the Education System", explored the opportunities that AI technologies provide in developing teaching methods and improving the learning experience.
The summit also included a programme of Future Dialogues that included two sittings. The first dealt with the challenges of using AI in education and learning. The second sitting discussed the “outcomes of higher education and the labour market” in the age of artificial intelligence.
Both sessions discussed the readiness of academic institutions, the gap between educational skills and labour market requirements and the role of AI in shaping future jobs.
