FEATURE : ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The role Artificial Intelligence is playing in boosting economic development in emerging markets
The need for organisations to make quick decisions from huge volumes of data has made Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) one of the key focus areas for technology investment over the last two years . But AI ’ s rapid rise to prominence has left some organisations in the Middle East and Africa ( MEA ) struggling to build the capabilities required to implement it successfully and realise its full potential of boosting economic development , writes Manda Banda .
Artificial Intelligence has enormous potential to augment human intelligence and to radically alter how people access products and services , gather information , make products , and interact . In emerging markets , AI offers an opportunity to lower costs and barriers to entry for businesses and deliver innovative business models that can leapfrog traditional solutions and reach the underserved . With technology-based solutions increasingly important to economic development in many nations , the goals of ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity may become dependent on harnessing the power of AI .
While emerging markets are already using basic AI technologies to solve critical development challenges , much more can be done , and private sector solutions will be critical to scaling new business models , developing new ways of delivering services , and increasing local markets ’ competitiveness . All of these solutions require innovative approaches to expand opportunities and mitigate risks associated with this new technology .
Hriday Ravindranath , Managing Director , Global Portfolio , Digital and AMEA , BT , said AI – the simulation of human intelligence by machines – is going beyond automation , where a machine is programmed to
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