Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 52 | Page 26

TRENDING its impact in Europe and North America across several industries and market sectors and we are confident that the trend will follow in the Middle East region. With the eruption of AI, some of the market leaders in five to 10 years’ time may be organisations that are not even key players today.” The research also identified three key global investment priorities for organisations when it comes to embarking upon the Digital Transformation journey: 1. Making sense of data utilising Artificial Intelligence and real-time data visualisation • The research highlighted a strong demand for technologies that provide predictive outputs from large data flows, with AI and analytics listed as the most important enabler (75%), 26 INTELLIGENTCIO closely followed by Real-Time Data Visualisation (64%), Augmented, Virtual or Mixed Reality (60%) and Big Data Processing (59%) • AI was a top three enabler across all industries globally, with the greatest importance assigned in power and utilities (81%) and oil and gas (particularly upstream 79% and midstream 78%) • Japan (88%) and China (84%) prioritised AI the most, with the UK (79%) and the US (77%) following closely behind three technology priorities across all industries globally, scoring highest among engineering, procurement and construction professionals • This was perceived as an essential technology for global production, ranked as the most important enabler for marine shipbuilding (75%), buildings and infrastructure (74%) and packaged goods (73%), with oil and gas and energy all ranking the technology highly • Japan (85%) and Germany (82%) are early adopters with high importance attributed across all regions 2. Fostering collaboration through Advanced Process and Engineering Design 3. Stepping up cybersecurity and safety capabilities • Advanced Process and Engineering Design was the second most important technology (74%) and was in the top • Cybersecurity was the third most prioritised technology enabler (71%) and in particular a focus for mining (76%), downstream oil and gas (75%), power www.intelligentcio.com