Microsoft Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Satya Nadella hailed Saudi organisations’ efforts at employing artificial intelligence (AI) to drive innovation and generate economic opportunities, during his visit to the kingdom on November 6.
While speaking at the ‘Microsoft AI, a New Era’ event, Nadella met local business leaders, government officials and developers, and emphasised the role of AI in unlocking new opportunities to accelerate the Kingdom's digital economy and transform the lives of its people.
“This next generation of AI will fundamentally transform productivity for individuals and spur innovation for businesses, and industries everywhere – including in Saudi Arabia.
“It’s great to see so many Saudi organisations across the public and private sector already applying this technology to drive innovation and create new economic opportunities."
At the event, Abdullah Alswaha, Minister of Communications & Information Technology and Nadella discussed at a fireside chat how the latest advancements in AI can help advance a digital society, digital government, thriving digital economy and an innovative future for all.
Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Abdullah Alswaha, praised the strategic partnership with Microsoft as a pillar of the kingdom's innovative future.
Alswaha stressed during his discussion with Mr Nadella that Microsoft is a crucial partner as the kingdom strengthens its position as a regional centre for connectivity, technology and innovation. He pointed to their collaboration in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, innovative solutions, and software development.
Minister Alswaha also highlighted the partnership between the Saudi Basic Industry Corporation and Microsoft as an example of how technology can support sustainability. The two companies are recycling plastic found in the ocean and then using it to produce electronic devices.
During the visit, he experienced first-hand how the latest advancements in cloud and AI are supporting the kingdom’s technology ecosystem of developers, startups, and organisations across every industry.
Nadella highlighted some of the ways Saudi Arabian innovation is already transforming the lives of people locally and globally. King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, one of the top hospitals in the Middle East, is trialling AI clinical documentation features in Nuance DAX. The speech-to-text solution is three times faster than typing and is helping clinicians at King Faisal Hospital to increase their productivity, reduce documentation errors, and spend more time with patients.
Nadella also met representatives of Saudi organisations that showcased how they are leading AI transformation and innovation in key industries, including:
Saudi Airlines is using Azure OpenAI GPT-4 to build “Saudia”, a new AI travel companion that provides personalised travel experiences and help, from destination recommendations to booking and baggage purchases. When it is launched later this year, it will be the region’s first airline to launch an AI travel companion, a statement said.
ACWA Power is using Azure AI, as well as the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform, to increase the health and safety of its employees and optimise the desalination chemicals blend to deliver the highest global standards of water for their customers.
The Ministry of Health, which receives up to 20,000 calls per day through its call centre, is harnessing the power of Azure AI to accelerate online medical consultation, escalate critical cases, and automate AI diagnosis reports and summarization for medium-low cases. The Ministry is also using AI-powered text analytics to extract medical codes from millions of physical documents.
Sindbad.Tech, is a robo-trader fintech company that provides auto trading bots (SaaS) in the financial markets. The technology uses Azure cloud to (optimise prices with high scalability and availability), AI to (predict opportunities), big data to (determine the market status and protect the capital from a down market), and relies on automation to (prevent human mistakes and fast to market), enabling retail investors to generate profit and reach financial freedom in an easy way, without transferring any funds to Sindbad.Tech and that's a game-changer.
Microsoft has had a presence in Saudi Arabia for more than 25 years. Ranked second among G20 nations and fourth globally in terms of digital systems preparedness, Saudi Arabia aims to establish a strong and advanced digital infrastructure that supports its Vision 2030. – TradeArabia News Service
