SBR and Jisr Sign MoU to Advance AI-Driven Hiring in Saudi Arabia
October 2, 2025
SBR, a Saudi AI HR startup, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Jisr, a leading HR and financial management platform in the Kingdom. The partnership focuses on data-driven hiring that reduces time-to-hire, cuts costs, and improves hiring accuracy.
Why this matters for HR in Saudi Arabia
Nearly two million people enter the Saudi job market each year, including around 250,000 new graduates. Employers face common blockers: resumes that don't reflect actual skills, interviews with mismatched candidates, and wasted cycles in screening.
Founded by Saleh Baarmah and Hamzah Bawazir, SBR was built to solve these problems with standardised criteria, shorter screening and interview timelines, and fairer selection through AI.
What the partnership means for your hiring process
- Shorter time-to-hire through faster screening and scheduling.
- Data-backed assessments that look beyond the CV to real skills.
- Standardised criteria to reduce bias and improve fairness.
- Lean procedures that lower cost per hire and raise quality of hire.
- Stronger workflows across HR and finance through Jisr's platform.
Inside SBR's approach: "Know Your Candidate"
SBR developed "Know Your Candidate," inspired by finance's "Know Your Customer." The model uses a smart recruitment engine to objectively analyse skills and experience, giving a deeper, more accurate view of candidates than traditional resumes.
Early traction
SBR launched its prototype in mid-August with more than 20 companies. A spokesperson said, "This agreement will help companies reduce wasted time and costs, and rely on precise data to select the right talent."
They also noted that behind SBR is a diverse team of analysts, data scientists, growth managers, developers, and marketers-driven to improve recruitment across Saudi Arabia and the Gulf and compete on a global stage.
Action steps for HR leaders
- Define role-level skills and weight them ahead of sourcing.
- Adopt structured interviews and scoring rubrics to improve signal.
- Pilot skills-based assessments for critical roles.
- Track time-to-hire, quality-of-hire, and new-hire performance alignment.
- Work with legal and IT on data privacy, model governance, and audit trails.
- Plan change enablement for recruiters and hiring managers.
Looking ahead
The collaboration supports Saudi Arabia's digital transformation and Vision 2030. Learn more about the national agenda here: Saudi Vision 2030.
Resources
Want to upskill your team on practical AI for recruiting and HR operations? Explore role-based learning paths here: Complete AI Training: Courses by Job.
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