FEATURE : ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
How Artificial Intelligence is helping boost 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 on the 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 ( AI ) has enormous potential to augment human intelligence and to radically alter how we 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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