The increasing demand for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the UAE is here to stay, a Microsoft official has stated. Necip Ozyucel, Cloud and Enterprise Business Solutions Lead, Microsoft, explained that the current AI trend is influenced by the need for players in both the private and public sector to leverage AI and other digital technologies to enhance customer experience and services.
UAE is leading the way, in the region, in experimenting and enhancing the use of AI, which will be integrated as a part of many interactions and communication in the country.
Ozyucel said,“We believe all industries, whether banking, retail, manufacturing or healthcare will be seen adopting AI solutions at a rapid pace in a bid to revolutionise every aspect of their business. This ranges from empowering employees, engaging customers, optimising operations to transforming their products or services.”
The AI market in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) is expected to peak $114 million (Dh418.38 million) by 2021, with prominent industries looking at deploying the technology for customer experience, fraud detection and sales advisory.
Commenting about the company’s efforts to integrate AI in the UAE market, he said: “Microsoft aims to democratise AI, to take artificial intelligence from the ivory towers and make it accessible to all and to ultimately improve the human condition.”
In the public sector, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority is the first government body to use AI to answer customer enquiries in an innovative and interactive way, in both English and Arabic, through a 24-hour chatbot.
The ‘Rammas’ service, built on Microsoft’s Bot Framework and hosted in the Azure cloud, is aimed at transforming customer experiences with its AI capabilities powered by Cortana intelligence suite. Rammas acts as a virtual employee around the clock to reply to customers’ inquiries online anytime, anywhere.
Ozyucel made the remarks at the concluded GITEX Technology Week, where the tech firm introduced, among other innovations, the Workplace Safety Demo. The solution is built on the company’s top Cognitive Services platform, with significant contribution from Microsoft’s cutting-edge AI capabilities to deliver workplace safety. Using existing commodity cameras, and advances in AI, the workplace safety solution brings the digital and physical worlds together to ensure more safety and productivity. The Demo showed visitors how any existing CCTV camera can be transformed into a safety and security tool, by the perfect union of the intelligent cloud and artificial intelligence capabilities.
Microsoft has previously floated initiatives such as AI for Earth, a program aimed at empowering people and organisations to solve global environmental challenges by increasing access to AI tools, education opportunities and skills, and accelerating innovation. The tech company also launched Seeing AI app (iOS), an app that describes the world for the visually impaired.
Source: http://www.gulftoday.ae/portal/79310a05-30f7-4a2b-9645-bb2a641e1b92.aspx
