By Joséphine Li
With the lockdown continuing to expand and the number of cases still increasing, the future remains quite unclear. When discussions emerge rapidly about post-lockdown plans, businesses will have to make certain adjustments to their regular functioning. A post-lockdown world will need to be more vigilant, more sanitized, and yet maintain a social distance. AI can be of great benefit to the scenario.
Recently, Dubai carefully hosted the first big conference since the lockdown, as the UAE opened its doors to visitors. The conference was held at the Dubai World Trade Centre and it was one of the first physical exhibitions to be held since the Coronavirus pandemic raged earlier this year. As the world slowly and surely emerges from the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, connectivity will play an indispensable role in facilitating people’s daily lives, from online banking services and online shopping to working and studying from home initiatives. AI will be the hallmark that underpins our connected society, with 5G, WiFi 6 and fiber to the premises connectivity putting the GCC at the cutting edge of connected society initiatives.
Several heavy hitters from around the country attended the Artificial Intelligence Everything summer conference 2020, looking forward to finding out how AI can help businesses bounce back after lockdown.
The Artificial Intelligence Everything Summer Conference 2020 will feature the most prominent decision-makers from across a wide range of business verticals from the UAE’s sectors, including speeches from executives from Dubai Airports, Careem and Jumeirah Group. The conference agenda will also hear from a variety of officials from the UAE government, who will be expertly positioned to provide valuable insights into the role AI will play in the country’s growth.
When asked how AI might be used to help it evolve and how their customer landscape had changed, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Retail—Hani Weiss said that more than 37,000 of his staff had undergone special AI training to make sure they understood its significance. Weiss believes that personalization is helping to reduce time-wasting, improve consumption for his customers and make sure they help the customers to select whatever they want.
The conference also broached the issue of data analytics and unavoidable concerns around security and privacy. Mudassir Sheikha said that data is sort of the fuel that drives their business. “It was among the most important things they have as a digital-first company,” he added. Sheikha also clarified that the essential factors that Careem focuses on are providing the best possible security staff, storing data in the cloud and ensuring effective processes are used to process the data.
Delegates also focused on the essential decision of how to apply AI to their businesses in the course of the pandemic. Weiss said orders had gone up enormously. Many countries saw a surge of as much as 300 percent and in Saudi Arabia, that figure was shockingly even closer to 1,000 percent. He also stated that many clients were new to the concept of online ordering—28 percent of the consumers who tried online during the pandemic had never accessed any online platform.
The CEO of ‘vehicle for hire’ firm Careem also clarified how crucial it is to be innovative about how they approach the online environment. He hopes that they can create a super app and become an “offline-online bridge.” He believes that this project can actually help people become more efficient and help societies become more productive and drive economic growth.
