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EDITOR ’ S QUESTION

believe the continuous investment in Intelligent Connectivity will create the basis for a positive chain effect for all stakeholders in the Middle East . To use a car analogy – you can only drive fast cars on good streets . In the past few years and especially following COVID-19 , many countries in the Middle East have opted to improve their ICT infrastructure , allowing citizens and corporations to benefit from this infrastructure . This will allow new use cases to be tested in both regulation sandboxes or the market in general – in other words , new types of cars will start testing the roads .

We are blessed to have a young and aspiring generation of highly educated citizens who are keen to use disruptive technology in their everyday lives . They form a solid talent pool from which individuals will be attracted to explore and develop those new use cases . Some of them will hit the market and become successful , generating new products and new jobs . In turn , this will start to generate competitive pull from outside of the Middle East from more sophisticated players in that domain , which will also attract even better talent to and from the region . To go back to the car analogy , we start to race more competitively on those roads with better cars and better drivers , making the race a spectacle .

The transformational impact of intelligent connectivity is the combination of the powerful convergence of broadband connectivity , 5G , the next generation of network , cloud , IoT and AI that represents the next stage of Digital Transformation . Underpinned by the emergence of AI , intelligent connectivity is shaping a future where everything is beginning to act , react and collaborate wirelessly and seamlessly with human preferences , commands and intentions . We expect 5G networks to reach critical mass for the world ’ s population much faster than 3G and 4G . As 5G ’ s global uptake grows , it is predicted that starting from 2025 , it will begin to converge with other technologies that enable intelligent connectivity such as cloud , IoT , AI , Big Data , virtual and Augmented Reality . This will bring a new value improving the future of all other sectors and industries for businesses , networks and societies .

With intelligent connectivity , AI plays a dual role : the first is to optimise how ICT infrastructure functions together ; the second is that AI can help enterprises make faster and better decisions . Both accelerate the digitalisation of societies and economies , and help create new products and services .

It is a daunting task for CIOs to be on top of the ever-changing landscape of innovation . In the past the various innovation stages from ideation to solution go-to-market would be almost exclusively driven by the large research and development ( R & D ) budgets of bluechip technology companies in regional markets , with major announcements being made on the annual mega IT events . This has dramatically changed over the past decade . The innovation cycles have been reinvented and the innovation players are bootstrapped , garage-based and don ’ t wait for announcements , but rather launch a version for crowd-based product testing . Meanwhile , another product or solution is under concept .

The perception of the CIO in many organisations is to play the role , either officially or unofficially , of the chief innovation officer . I have personally witnessed many CIOs ’ different playbooks that have worked for them in this role . www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO

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