Leveraging Gamified Digital Interventions for Urban Sustainability in Saudi Arabia: Design and Development of an Arabic-First Agentic AI Mobile Application

Rapid urbanization and consumption growth have intensified the need for locally relevant solutions that translate environmental awareness into measurable individual action which is a priority of the Saudi Vision 2030 and the Saudi Green Initiative. While gamified eco-feedback applications show promise, most rely on passive monitoring, lack cultural localization, and offer no mechanisms to verify that pro-environmental actions actually occur. This paper presents Nameer, an Arabic-first mobile application integrating gamification, agentic AI, and automated real-world task verification within a behavioral-intervention framework grounded in the Fogg Behavior Model and Design Science Research methodology. Personalized sustainability tasks are generated by autonomous agents using a Wilson-score preference model, while authenticity is confirmed through image classification, a hybrid vision–OCR pipeline, GPS-based checks, and AI-generated quizzes; a carbon-footprint module quantifies each completed action’s impact. System-level evaluation and a formative usability study combining scenario-based testing with the System Usability Scale showed that the image-classification model reached 87.0% accuracy, the recommendation engine achieved an F1-score of 0.87, and the platform recorded a measurable carbon offset during the pilot. These findings, drawn from an initial proof-of-concept prototype, suggest that combining behavioral design, agentic AI, and verified action offers a promising technical foundation for community-driven urban sustainability aligned with UN SDGs 11 and 12; longitudinal behavioral impact remains a subject for future investigation.