Monday 07 / September / 2026
MUSCAT: In a historic global first, the Sultanate of Oman has officially launched the results of its Artificial Intelligence Household Income and Expenditure Survey project, marking a revolutionary shift in how official national statistics are produced.
The breakthrough initiative, spearheaded by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), replaces resource-heavy traditional data collection with advanced AI technologies to drastically improve statistical efficiency, accuracy, and sustainability while aligning directly with the strategic goals of Oman Vision 2040.
Speaking at a ceremony at the NCSI headquarters in Muscat on Sunday evening, Dr. Khalifa bin Abdullah Al Barwani, CEO of the NCSI, hailed the project as a qualitative shift for Oman.
He explained that this transformation saves the time, effort, and resources that traditional methods once required.
Furthermore, Dr. Al Barwani emphasised that the AI-driven data will drastically sharpen economic policymaking by providing critical, integrated data on consumer spending patterns, establishing the relative weights needed to calculate the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and measuring inflation with unprecedented precision.
He added that this milestone—driven entirely by national talent—is just the beginning of a broader roadmap to embed AI across other statistical fields in Oman.
