Event Report
To remain competitive in an ever-evolving business environment, organisations are turning to data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) as crucial components of their digital transformation processes.
PwC, with its key alliance Salesforce, recently organised an insightful session roundtable on the Future of AI & Data at the PwC Middle East’s Dubai office. Key speakers included Selchuk Emin, Lead Solution Engineer and Field CTO at Salesforce and Akif Kamal, Partner – Technology Services, Smart Cities and GenAI CoE Lead at PwC Middle East. Clients from various industries attended the event that discussed the Salesforce analytics platform,Tableau’s vision for the future, data monetisation and PwC Middle East’s perspectives on GenAI.
According to industry experts who gathered at the roundtable, organisations are leveraging Generative AI (GenAI) to enhance their operations. We are at a point where AI-powered assistants will revolutionise human and computer interaction and automate repetitive work that requires a high level of subject-matter expertise. However, GenAI is not intended to replace human ideas or decisions.
This report provides the key takeaways from the session and offers insights into how organisations can drive better business outcomes with fully integrated data management as part of their digital transformation process, as well as by harnessing GenAI responsibly.
Following are some key insights:
- The transformation imperative
- Changing market drives greater need for data
- GenAI democratises tech
- Trust is at the heart of AI adoption
- A revolution in data monetisation
The transformation imperative
Over the past two decades, organisations are undergoing constant digital transformation. In the early 2000s, there was the call for cloud transformation that demanded organisations to be agile, collaborative, and customer focused.
The pandemic accelerated digital transformation when organisations had to quickly adapt to online and remote work. Presently, we are in the era of AI transformation that is disrupting every business process in every industry. Although these transformations overlap and are interrelated, data lies at the foundation of each.
Changing market drives greater need for data
As organisations scale and reimagine the way they work, there are higher expectations when it comes to data utilisation. While customers demand better experiences, employees need data-driven decision-making, and shareholders expect companies to become more data-driven. This has resulted in data becoming a top priority for organisations. According to Selchuk Emin, using data to drive business performance has now become mission-critical.
GenAI democratises tech
Prior to 2003, there was traditional reporting of data, while between 2004 and 2022, organisations used self-serve analytics where professionals could see and understand the data and generate reports. Now in 2023 and beyond, analytics is for everyone, and it enables individuals to not only see and understand data but also act on it.
As data analytics becomes more domain-aware, it is able to recognise key goals and KPIs, allowing organisations to make more accurate and trustworthy predictions. It is time that analytics became domain aware. They should be aware of your key goals and KPIs; allow you to take action; know you and are personalised to what you care about and appear in the context of systems where you work.
GenAI democratises technology. Its large language models (LLMs) are trained on huge data sets to generate, summarise and translate human-like text and other multimedia content. LLMs gather data, model it and even predict unknown data to answer questions, analyse sentiments, extract information, caption images, recognise objects and follow instructions. It offers smart contextual insights that drive business value. According to Selchuk Emin, GenAI can provide a 10x boost in areas such as data analysis, task automation, content creation, and learning and development. Kamal adds to this by saying that GenAI will become the most powerful tool to accelerate productivity, thus boosting enterprise automation implementation.
However, the effectiveness of GenAI depends on the underlying data or system. Poor data compromises the benefits of GenAI. Data plays a crucial role as it provides the foundation for machine learning models to identify patterns and trends, which are used for predictions and decisions. The quality of data affects the accuracy of the results.
Trust is at the heart of AI adoption
The impact of AI-powered data and analytics can be game changing for organisations. With new AI capabilities transforming how organisations operate, from data analysts leveraging Salesforce's Einstein Copilot for Tableau to CRM users accessing intelligent apps, the potential for innovation is limitless. “The advent of foundation models has revolutionised the field of AI by providing a starting point for developers and researchers. This streamlines the process of creating new AI systems by leveraging the existing knowledge encapsulated in these models for a significant number of tasks,” Kamal adds.
However, trust is an essential element that cannot be neglected. Establishing a layer of trust that secures data retrieval, detects bias, and eases auditing requirements is critical for businesses to unlock the full potential of AI.
Without this crucial trust between company data and AI models, concerns over privacy and security could stall adoption, hindering progress and limiting growth.
A revolution in data monetisation
The future of data monetisation is here. Embedded analytics will play a critical role in unlocking its potential. Gartner predicts that within the next few years, more than 25% of Fortune 500 chief data and analytics officers will be responsible for at least one data and analytics-based product that becomes a top earner. By leveraging embedded analytics, businesses can monetise internal data, unlock new revenue streams, improve operational efficiency, and enhance customer relationships. The possibilities are endless and organisations must be ready to explore the possibilities of AI and data in powering innovation.
Contact us today to start your journey. With our expertise, you can unlock the benefits of AI and take your data and innovation efforts to new heights.
