VIEWPOINT
IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE EXPENSIVE? TO MASTER AI AS A REVENUE CATALYST REQUIRES FIRST UNDERSTANDING ITS COSTS, WRITES SID BHATIA, REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT, MIDDLE EAST & TURKEY, DATAIKU
A
lmost immediately after it became apparent that the world was changing under our feet, AI emerged as an enabler across the region. Suddenly, these technologies were not just being advocated by their vendors, but by analysts who pointed out that AI could help not only with battling the COVID pandemic, but in fomenting slick, robust economic recovery. Each industry could do something concrete to reinvent 28
CXO INSIGHT ME
FEBRUARY 2022
itself in the wake of seismic shifts in customer needs. Analysis of economies across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) predicts the region will respond dramatically to these arguments. By 2030, artificial intelligence will contribute 13.6% to the GDP of the United Arab Emirates and 12.4% to that of Saudi Arabia. And these are just the frontrunners. The Middle East as a whole is expected to be home to a
US$320 billion AI industry by 2030. The benefits of machine learning and advanced data analytics are now well known, but not everyone is enjoying success with these tools, because not everyone has the optimal migration methodology in place. If ingenuity does not flow quickly from AI investment, costs can outweigh gains before the technology has had a chance to add value. To prevent this, it is advisable to analyze each use case to see which
