The Information Technology Authority has hosted the 4.0 Digital Trends Forum, to discuss emerging technologies of the fourth industrial revolution.
The Forum, which took place at the Public Authority for Civil Aviation Salalah, was held under the patronage of HE Dr. Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al-Futaisi, Minister of Transport and Communications and the chairman of the ITA's board of directors.
Speaking at the forum, Dr Salim bin Sultan Alruzaiqi, CEO of ITA discussed the importance of AI as the backbone of the fourth industrial revolution: "Through this forum, we aim to shed light on the latest trends in artificial intelligence applications and its implications on addressing many of the issues and challenges facing humanity. In addition, the forum is an opportunity to encourage IT specialists, entrepreneurs and organisations towards research and innovation in AI.
"Innovations and digital transformation based on the 4th industrial revolution technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, internet of things, virtual reality and the ability to employ these technologies are the key elements on which the countries' ability to achieve growth, progress and prosperity will depend," he added.
"We see real economic returns from employing the fourth industrial revolution's technologies which ultimately will impact economic sectors, government and private organisations. For example, it is expected that the fourth industrial revolution technologies will add approximately $3.7 trillion worldwide in 2025 as an additional economic value through increased productivity. ITA also predicts that the saving from the implementation of four AI projects in eGovernment transformation will be equivalent to OMR18 million within four years," Dr Alruzaiqi said.
The event sessions and papers were delivered by prominent international and local speakers. Dr Aisha Khan, Co-Founder and CEO of ADDO AI discussed the automation and future of work with AI.
"AI is so critical to the Hybrid Age that it is becoming a strategy at a national level for many countries. Technology is becoming Cheaper that is it can be owned by the majority, therefore, many businesses are now employing it. According to statistics published by economists, 47% of jobs will be replaced by robots, so people should be more aware today of the specializations and future career they choose," Khan said in her paper.
Dr Amjad Zaim - Cognitro Analytics' CEO talked about AI sustainability highlighting challenges facing AI and big data and introduced health digital strategy for AI. Dr. Amjad said that: "AI will spread rapidly in most sectors and the transport sector is one of the areas that will benefit greatly from the artificial intelligence where there will be self-driving cars which detect all objects on their way."
At the sideline of the forum, a discussion session was held moderated by Mr. Khalid bin Alsafi Alharibi, fonder of Impact Enterprise as well as the speakers and with the participation of Dr. Bader bin Salim Almanthari, VP, technology and Digital Innovation at Oman Aviation Group through which they discussed the challenges to be faced on implementing Ai and the proposed solutions.
The forum was organized as part of ITA's efforts in realizing the objectives of e.oman strategy to transfer Oman into a knowledge based society and bridging digital illiteracy.
Source: http://www.itp.net/617755-ita-holds-40-digital-trends-forum
