{"id":94878,"date":"2019-06-10T13:02:58","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T13:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/?p=433288"},"modified":"2019-06-10T13:02:58","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T13:02:58","slug":"microsoft-ey-joint-study-unveils-ai-maturity-levels-amongst-uae-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/06\/10\/microsoft-ey-joint-study-unveils-ai-maturity-levels-amongst-uae-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft, EY joint study unveils AI maturity levels amongst UAE businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><em>A report commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by EY says the UAE has seen the second highest AI investment over the past decade, more than USD $2.15 billion <\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>One in five companies in the country consider AI as their top digital priority <\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>94% of C-suite leadership consider \u2018AI strategy\u2019 as an important topic and 35% of non-managerial staff are actively having AI discussions<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>June 10, 2019 \u2013 Dubai, UAE:<\/strong> New research shows the state of AI within businesses across the UAE is expected to improve dramatically over the next three years, particularly as a growing number of executives look to AI to drive their digital agendas.<\/p>\n<p>Already, 18% of businesses in the country consider AI their most important digital priority. This is according to the AI Maturity Report in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) <a href=\"https:\/\/info.microsoft.com\/ME-DIGTRNS-CNTNT-FY19-05May-27-AIMaturityStudyMiddleEast-SRGCM1065_01Registration-ForminBody.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Click here<\/a>&nbsp;\u2013 a new study commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by EY.<\/p>\n<p>Much of the UAE\u2019s progress in elevating the AI agenda is a direct result of leaders across the country recognising that the technology is quickly becoming a key differentiator across all sectors and actively pursuing their AI agendas accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, 94% of companies in the UAE report involvement in AI at executive management level \u2013 the highest percentage of any surveyed country in MEA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we examine companies with high AI maturity, it\u2019s clear that the technology is driven directly by the CEOs themselves. This high level of involvement typically results in greater investment in AI, broader adopti on and a greater number of successful implementations,\u201d says Sayed Hashish, regional general manager at Microsoft Gulf.<\/p>\n<p>Leadership capability in the UAE is also rated high when compared with other countries in MEA. While 64% of respondents believe they have moderate, little or no AI leadership competency, 24% of executives in the UAE rated themselves as highly competent, with another 46 percent indicating they are either competent or very competent.<\/p>\n<p>Most companies still consider themselves to be in the planned phase of AI maturity, meaning AI has not yet been put to active use. On the opposite end of the spectrum, just 8% of businesses perceive themselves as advanced in their application of AI.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microsoft-ey-joint-study-unveils-ai-maturity-levels-amongst-uae-businesses.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17700\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microsoft-ey-joint-study-unveils-ai-maturity-levels-amongst-uae-businesses.jpg\" alt=\"Artificial Intelligence infographic in the UAE\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1414\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A top regional investor<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not surprising that the UAE is the second highest regional investor in AI over the past ten years, investing $2.15 billion in total. The bulk of this investment went towards social media and Internet of Things (IoT) transactions. This was followed by notable spend across a further eight technologies, including smart mobile, gamification, and machine learning.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, respondents ranked machine learning as the most useful AI technology, with primary emphasis placed on decision support solutions. This was followed by smart robotics and text analysis, where customer interactions were the key focus.<\/p>\n<p>A healthy attitude towards new technology<\/p>\n<p>The UAE\u2019s open culture around AI is another highly positive indicator of the health of the technology within the country. 94% of UAE companies have \u2018AI Strategy\u2019 as an important topic at C-suite level and a significant 35% of companies say AI discussions are filtering down from top management right the way through to non-managerial levels.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, employees in the UAE are less afraid of losing their jobs to AI than employees in other countries. In fact, they embrace opportunities to participate in skills training and pilot programmes.<\/p>\n<p>Building a solid foundation for AI<\/p>\n<p>Though UAE executives are providing clear direction for the development of AI within the country, converting this vision to actionable output remains a challenge. This is largely because many UAE companies are still building the foundations needed to develop AI maturity, including suitable infrastructure and good quality data.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe biggest problem to date with AI is that it isn\u2019t always right \u2013 AI has given us the ability to make data-driven predictions, decisions and actions faster than ever before, but it is only as effective as the data and algorithms it relies on,\u201d says Steve Plimsoll, MENA Data &amp; Intelligence advisory leader, EY. \u201cSo, while it\u2019s great to see local companies investing in adoption of AI, the focus must be on building trust \u2013&nbsp; that the underlying data and algorithms are reliable, the models ethical and the predictions are measurable and as accurate as they can be. Without trust, AI will be never fully move from fiction into reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExecutives across the UAE are already investing significantly in the training and education of their employees. At the same time, businesses are engaging with external parties to promote skills transfer and making a concerted effort to identify relevant use cases for AI,\u201d continues Microsoft\u2019s Hashish. \u201cIn the past, organisations have undervalued the importance of their data assets, meaning their competencies around structured data governance and data stewardship are still developing. And it will take time for businesses to start producing large volumes of high quality, well-managed data.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe country has made significant progress in elevating its AI agenda over the past three years, and all indicators point to the near future bringing significant improvement in the application of the technology as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Customers a key focus<\/p>\n<p>UAE companies are, in general, heavily focused on customer engagement when it comes to AI. The use of chatbots in the marketing space has become common, largely because they enhance the customer experience, ultimately demonstrating obvious value to management.<\/p>\n<p>As with most other businesses across the region, UAE respondents expect AI to deliver greater operational efficiencies, drive down costs and, most importantly, enable them to be more competitive. Specifically, companies within the Emirates view prediction (76%) and automation (76%) as the most relevant applications of AI for their businesses.<\/p>\n<p>Despite such challenges, 65% of UAE companies rate themselves as highly to very competent when it comes to drawing on external alliances to strengthen their AI capabilities. Ultimately, this enables executives to kick-start AI programmes, leveraging external competencies while growing their internal capacity.<\/p>\n<p>To download the full report on the UAE\u2019s AI outlook, <a href=\"https:\/\/info.microsoft.com\/ME-DIGTRNS-CNTNT-FY19-05May-27-ArtificialIntelligenceinUnitedArabEmirates-SRGCM1068_01Registration-ForminBody.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">click here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A report commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by EY says the UAE has seen the second highest AI investment over the past decade, more than USD $2.15 billion One in five companies in the country consider AI as their top digital priority 94% of C-suite leadership consider \u2018AI strategy\u2019 as an important topic and 35% [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-94878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft-news","tag-recent-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}