This talk was presented during the 24th GCC smart government and smart cities conference in Dubai on 22nd April 2018. It discusses the impact of AI on the GCC economy, providing use cases for AI from the UAE government and what the GCC countries need to do to benefit from AI.

1. Artificial Intelligence
and the Future of
GCC Governments
Dr. Saeed Aldhaheri
Chairman of the board, Smartworld
@DDSaeed

2. Agenda
• AI as a key driver for the 4th industrial revolution
• AI impact on the GCC Economy
• AI activities in the GCC
• What is AI and why now?
• AI and robotics in automation
• Future of Jobs and the skills needed in the GCC
• Reinventing government services using AI: UAE
examples
• Challenges facing GCC Governments
• Recommendations

3. My Interest in AI and disruptive technologies
Audit in the age of AI

4. AI is a key driver for the 4IR
AI is key to building a sustainable future
that will benefit communities and support
economic and social development efforts.
Omar Al Olama, UAE Minister of AI

5. AI impact on the GCC Economy
Source: PwC Global Artificial Intelligence Study
• The ME is expected to achieve 2% ($320
billion) of the total global benefits of AI
in 2030.
• 33% annual growth rate of AI in the UAE
• 31% annual growth rate of AI in SA
• 28% annual growth rate in GCC4
• spending on cognitive and AI systems MEA
region will grow from $37.5 million in 2017
to over $100 million by 2021. IDC
AI will be able to double economic
growth for 12 of developing economies
by 2035 and will help increase
productivity by 40%. Accenture

6. AI activities in the GCC are growing

7. What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Source: David Kelner, The fourth industrial revolution: a primer on Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI: developing computer systems that exhibit intelligent
Behavior, similar to human being
Machine Learning: teaching computers to learn without
explicit Programming
• algorithms: decision tree learning, Bayesian networks, clustering,
reinforcement learning
• Relative success for some tasks
Deep Learning: a technique for implementing ML
• Learning data representation
• Approximate the function of neurons in the brain
• uses several layers of artificial neural networks
• Fast computing (e.g, GPUs) made the “big bang”
• Applied to speech recognition, computer vision, natural lang
processing, machine translation,,,etc
AI echo system

8. Why AI & Why Now?
• Solving complex problems difficult for traditional computing methods
• Pattern recognition and image classifications
• complex predictions
• Translation between languages
• general intelligence
• Why now?
• Increase in computing power and the effect of the cloud
• BiG Data
• enhanced algorithms (ML, DL,,etc)

9. Types of AI
• Strong AI (superintelligence):
• Self-aware machines with thoughts, feelings, consciousness,,,etc
• Does not exist today and far away
• Narrow AI:
• Focused on solving specific challenges
• Optimizers for specific tasks
• E.g, facial recognition, recommendation engines, Chatbots, predictive
analytics

10. AI & Robotics in Automation
More than 80,000 robots
Worldwide handling millions
of orders each day

11. Building a successful AI application
• Talent
• Data
• Infrastructure
Source: CBINSIGHTS: This is why all companies need an AI Strategy today

12. Future of Jobs and The skills needed in the GCC
• Opportunities for new job categories
vs. massive labor substitution
• About 45% of jobs in the ME were
technically automatable today.
McKinesy & Company
• AI will offer 10m new job
opportunities, and automation is
expected to eliminate 74% of current
jobs available today
• Compared to 2015, 21% of core skills
required across all occupations will be
totally different by 2020 in the GCC.

13. New AI-Driven jobs
• Data Scientists : domain expert
• Trainers: teach AI system how to perform
• Explainers: help provide clarity
• Sustainers: help ensure that AI systems are operating as
designed.
MIT Sloan special collection report

14. CIOs Need to Establish AI Strategies
• Develop clear line of sight to business value
• Priorities for AI automation with a focus on customer
experience
• What AI technologies and infrastructure needed
• Training and talent
• Data –driven culture and data science skills
• New metrics to measure ROI
• e,g. how AI is freeing human from mundane tasks
• How AI is improving human decision making and forecast
• Cloud ML platforms
• AWS machine learning
• Google Cloud ML
• AI Cloud services
• Microsoft cognitive services
• IBM Watson
• Google cloud vision,
• Google NL API
AI as a service offerings

15. UAE AI Strategy
Vision: To boost government performance, the
rate of accomplishing achievements.
KPIs for 2031
• 30% boost of UAE GDP
• 50% saving on annual cost to government
• 100% use of AI in services and gov data analytics
• 90% resistance of financial crises
AI Council to:
• Coordinate AI implementation in the gov sector
• Recommending development of related Infrastructure
• Identify challenges and overcome them
• Integrating AI in the different stages of education

16. Reinventing Government Services using AI:
UAE Examples
Shehab chatbot by DCT Abu Dhabi

17. Reinventing Government Services using AI:
UAE Examples
• Oyoon (eyes) AI surveillance Program:
• to improve security and Safety in Dubai
• Smart CCTV monitoring crime and traffic
accidents and violations
• Expected outcomes:
• help police with the decision-making process
• Faster response to incidents
• optimizing human resources by reducing their
intervention in areas of monitoring, analysis
and surveillance.

18. Challenges facing Government to adopt AI
• Diffused and unclear leadership
• No clear picture of how AI can add value
• Shortage of Expertise
• Fears from AI to replace humans
• Technical challenges (e.g, data
management infrastructure)

19. Recommendations
• AI in the GCC still in early stages and a lot needs to be done to reap the benefits
• GCC countries need to develop AI strategies and road maps to implement AI
• More coordination between GCC countries is needed
• Explore common opportunities and address common challenges
• Close coordination with research centers and universities to promote AI research
• Preparing people for change
• AI governance
• Laws and regulation

21. End