Abdulmalik Alsaeed & Sawt: Building Dialect-Smart Arabic Voice AI

The AI Race is Global, But Abdulmalik is Making it Personal

From finance to healthcare, voice is becoming the first interface customers encounter. But for over 400 million Arabic speakers, most AI systems still struggle to listen, understand, or respond naturally.

That’s the gap Abdulmalik Alsaeed set out to close. As Co-Founder & CEO of Sawt, he’s building voice AI that speaks it like a local. Emotionally aware. Dialect-sensitive. And ready for real business deployment.

“At Sawt, we’re not adapting global models. We’re designing from the ground up for Arabic, for context, and for meaning.”

— Abdulmalik Alsaeed

Shaped by Product, Storytelling, and Purpose

Before he was leading an AI company, Abdulmalik was shaping narratives and products across industries. From his early days as Editor-in-Chief at Thmanyah, where he sharpened his ear for audience voice, to product leadership roles in startups like Rize and Tweeq, he developed a rare founder profile, one equally fluent in design thinking, business models, and cultural insight.

That blend gave him a clear instinct when it came time to build his own venture: voice was the future, but only if it sounded like us.

Sawt: A Voice Engine Tuned to the Region

Launched in Riyadh in 2024, Sawt is a Saudi-based AI voice platform that helps businesses automate customer calls, from support and bookings to sales, using natural-sounding, always-on AI agents that understand Arabic and its dialects. It integrates with internal systems and operates 24/7, eliminating the need for expanded call center teams while raising the bar for conversational UX.

What sets Sawt apart is its cultural fluency:

• Recognizes diverse Arabic dialects across the Gulf and wider MENA
• Embeds emotion and tone detection for more natural interactions
• Enables seamless, automated voice calls across high-volume sectors

That precision paid off quickly. Within months, Sawt was serving dozens of clients and powering hundreds of thousands of voice interactions, with early adoption across industries like fintech, logistics, and public services.

“Saudi has the tools to lead the next AI wave, the infrastructure, the talent, the vision. Now it’s about unlocking access to real data and building what’s next.”

— Abdulmalik Alsaeed

From Product to Partnerships: The Scale-up Begins

Abdulmalik’s leadership isn’t confined to product. He’s also been strategic in partnerships and visibility, ensuring Sawt enters the national conversation around AI and CX.

Notable Milestones:

• Pre-seed round led by STV and T2’s AI Fund
• Panel appearances at CXworld and Future Investment Initiative (FII9)
• Strategic alliances with Awaed and Barq to power AI voice in Saudi’s financial sector
• Featured alongside Google Cloud in key digital transformation showcases

These partnerships aren’t symbolic. They’re operational, integrating Sawt’s technology into call centers, support flows, and smart booking engines in the Kingdom’s most critical sectors.

Human-Centered Leadership in an Algorithmic Age

For Abdulmalik, leading a tech company doesn’t mean hiding behind code. His approach is deeply human, grounded in listening, feedback, and intentional culture. Whether on stage or at Sawt’s event booth, he frames progress not just in terms of features, but user experience, team values, and national relevance.

“Spending time on the ground with clients always pushes us to raise the bar, to build sharper, more meaningful products.”

— Abdulmalik Alsaeed

Building AI at Home, for Home

Sawt’s growth aligns directly with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 mandate to localize advanced technology, elevate digital infrastructure, and cultivate regional IP.

By designing Arabic-native models in-house, rather than adapting global systems, Abdulmalik is pushing for technology sovereignty. His work answers a national call: own the tools of tomorrow, don’t just import them.

Building for Scalability and Regional Reach

As Sawt evolves, scalability is top of mind. Abdulmalik is architecting the platform not just for Saudi Arabia, but for the entire Arabic-speaking world. This means investing in infrastructure that can accommodate a growing range of dialects, sectors, and regulatory requirements.

The ambition is not to remain a Saudi solution, but to become a pan-Arab technology leader, offering regional enterprises a homegrown alternative to global incumbents. With the right mix of capital, data access, and product agility, Sawt is well-positioned to scale.

Vision Forward: A Platform for Regional AI

Looking ahead, Abdulmalik Alsaeed is building infrastructure. A voice OS. A training ground for Arabic AI models. A hub that others can plug into.

Whether powering call centers in Kuwait or healthcare bots in Jeddah, Sawt aims to be the default voice engine for the Arabic-speaking world. One call at a time. And if Abdulmalik’s trajectory so far is any signal, he’s just getting started.

Follow Founder’s Tale for more stories of the visionaries shaping Saudi Arabia’s future.