Abstract: The rapid advancement in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) technologies in Saudi Arabia has brought with it a transformative shift across various sectors and industries. As GenAI becomes increasingly integrated into the digital infrastructures of modern organizations, understanding the factors that influence its adoption, acceptance and use has become an important area of research beyond academia. Saudi Arabian GenAI adoption research focused primarily on educational institutions, and to gain a more comprehensive understanding of real-world implications, researchers must explore new territories to cover adoption across different industries. Accordingly, this research paper aims to provide a new prospect on GenAI adoption and use in Saudi Arabia by targeting 500 users working in a large Saudi energy organization capitalizing on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). A total of 104 users completed a survey questionnaire and included 87 males [83.7%] and 17 females [16.3%] with varying years of experience ranging from less than 5 years to over 20 years. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated in addition to Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to examine the hypothesized relationships among TAM’s constructs. Pearson correlation showed stronger correlation between Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Attitude Toward Use (ATU) (r = .680, p < .01) compared to Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and ATU (r = .327, p <.01). Similarly, SEM revealed that PU had a significant influence on ATU (β = .52, p < .001) while PEOU influence was of non-significance on ATU (β = .05, p > .05). Findings revealed the implications of organizational strategies and users training prior to introducing GenAI for users with statistically significant association between ease of becoming skillful and understandability of GenAI tools (r = .826, p <.01).

Key Words: GenAI, Adoption, Saudi Arabia, Energy, TAM