KHALED AL KHAWALDEH (ABU DHABI)
AI's enormous and disruptive impact on social and economic systems was the central issue at the Aletihad Forum on Monday with guests from around the world providing a range of perspectives.
Speaking during the second session, Professor Tadhg O'Donovan, Chief Scientist at Heriot-Watt University, made a compelling speech where he spoke at length of the enormous economic opportunity that AI presented.
"AI provides powerful analytical tools that help businesses make better informed decisions by processing large data sets quickly," Tadhg said. "This is the real power of AI, and this is what will be the economic vital making our productivity higher and quicker, we can definitely be more productive and drive economic growth to answer or to continue the discussion that maybe we need a three-day week instead of a five-day working week."
Moderating the session, Aletihad English Managing Editor, Mohammad Ghazal, highlighted Statista reports that suggest that in 2023, the global AI market was valued at $208 billion, and that by 2030, it's set to hit the $2 trillion mark.
"With an annual growth rate of around 38%, recent projections suggest that AI could add $25.6 trillion to the global economy in the near future according to McKinsey," Ghazal said.
"These figures illustrate the scale of change artificial intelligence is driving, but at the same time, they point to the urgency for businesses and individuals alike to adapt. While technology plays an important part in keeping up with this shift, one must also consider and understand its implications for economies, industries, and the workforce," he noted.
According to Tadhg, personalisation, and the enabling of personalised experiences for customers through AI was another major disruptive force introduced by the technology. He believed this would have a major impact on industries like marketing and sales much sooner than some people were anticipating.
He believed that this would inevitably lead to some job losses but was positive that through the correct implementation and government policies, technology would always have an overall positive impact.
"Just like adding a bit of technology, from the conception of the wheel, we have learned that we would require less, but what really has happened in the course of time is that we have done more with our resources," he explained.
Ultimately, Tadhg believed that the UAE was on the right path, having spent a decent amount of time in the country on the university's Dubai campus. "The output for UAE is surely positive. I've been working here for about eight years now, and the focus on AI, in its ministries, to the establishment of institutions, have all the right indications of investing in the future," he said.
"So it is inevitable that robotics and artificial intelligence will play a transformational future of the world's economy and society in a revolution that is manufacturing with supercharging industrial efficiency and productivity.