UAE firms look to AI to transform security systems

Dubai - AI could contribute $320B to the Middle East economy in 2030, equivalent to 11% of GDP

Artificial intelligence systems will play a key role in transforming various industries across the UAE, including the security industry, with organisations looking to adopt systems that will help them prevent fraud.
New analysis by Visa showed how the company's risk management tool, Visa Advanced Authorization, used AI to help financial institutions prevent an estimated $25 billion in annual fraud.

"One of the toughest challenges in payments is separating good transactions made by account holders from bad ones attempted by fraudsters without adding friction to the process," said Melissa McSherry, senior vice-president and global head of data, risk and identity products and solutions at Visa.
"By striking the right balance between human expertise and technology innovation, we continue to evolve our capabilities as new AI breakthroughs expand the realm of what's possible," she added.
IDC predicts that spending on AI and cognitive intelligence systems in the Middle East and Africa will grow to over $100 million by 2021 - a compound annual growth rate of 32 per cent.
PwC estimates that AI could contribute $320 billion to the Middle East economy in 2030, equivalent to 11 per cent of GDP. The greatest gains from AI are likely to be in the UAE, with a contribution of up to 13.6 per cent GDP in 2030.
PwC also estimates that AI could contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy in 2030, more than the current output of China and India combined. Of this, $6.6 trillion is likely to come from increased productivity and $9.1 trillion is likely to come from benefits to consumers.
Nilesh Khalkho, CEO of Sharaf DG, highlighted how organisations today are increasingly looking at utilising machine learning. "We have already reached a point where we are personalising experiences through AI based on how shoppers are browsing our retail site. There is an algorithm that learns and starts testing itself to see what works best."
He added: "We are also using AI in HR to see how our employees are motivated. This is critical, because we are in the service industry, where, even if you have the best products, you will not be able to recover from poor customer service."
Corbett Hoxland, business development manager of Enterprise Solutions at HP Computing and Printing Middle East, noted that the biggest challenges regarding AI have been biases.
"It is not diverse enough," he said. "If we are going to be teaching an AI system to learn, then we need inputs from people from as many different backgrounds as possible. The challenge is going to be deciding which method is best; does the AI teach itself, or do we guide it? If we guide it, then the biases kick in."
However, he noted that AI has a very promising future. "It has to be part of our solutions. The challenge that we are facing is regarding data - the quantity of data that we have, the quality of it, and how diverse it is. What we have today is not general AI, but narrow AI, which is to say AI that is very good at a specific task. Take for example Google Maps: you can ask it to find the closest petrol station and it will, but ask it the time, and it not be able to answer. Many organisations today, don't know the difference between general AI and narrow AI, and just how big of an impact that difference makes."
His encouraged organisations to be part of the evolution of AI. "This is their opportunity to influence it and contribute to the future."
- rohma@khaleejtimes.com