Accra, Ghana//-Experts and panellists at this year’s MTN Business CTIO Roundtable Africa Conference have advised businesses in Ghana and Africa to swiftly create artificial intelligence (AI) strategies to enable them to grow.
According to them, for businesses to be able to leverage AI responsibly and sustainably, they need to create AI strategies that go hand-in-hand with their business strategies.
They gave this timely advice at the conference organised by MTN Business in Accra today.
Speaking at the conference themed-‘AI Driven Innovation: Transforming Business Strategies and Operational Efficiency’, Chief Information Officer of MTN Ghana, Bernard Acquah, urged businesses to build their AI strategies on solid data to enable them to stand the test of time.
To this, he said: “All AI strategy must start with your data strategy, because how your data is held is the beginning of the journey”.
Mr Acquah was quick to add: “If you don’t have decent data, you can’t do much. So, I can’t speak to a specific thing that a company will do for their particular business. However, one thing nobody can run away from is having a data strategy, but it means that your data is ready for AI to run on”.
The Chief Enterprise Business Officer at MTN Ghana, Madam Angela Mensah-Poku, while encouraging businesses to embrace AI, underscored the important role AI and data play in today’s world.
She therefore asked the businesses to be more intentional about leveraging data and AI to harness business growth and create value for their customers and other key stakeholders.
The emergence of data and AI presents immense opportunities for business growth so businesses need to take a critical look at leveraging insights from these innovations to accelerate their growth and ultimately enhance customer experience and create value, Madam Mensah-Poku told the participants.
The panellists- Research Program Manager, AI and Machine Learning at Google AI, Abdoulaye Diack; Chief Information Officer at GCB Bank PLC, Abel Lomotey Daitey; CEO of Npontu Technologies, Dr Stephane Nwolley; the Institute of Advanced Teaching & Learning, Dr Nefertiti Puplampu; and Founder & CEO of minoHealth AI Labs, Darlington Akogo acknowledged that AI is transforming businesses more than anything else in the world and therefore called on all businesses across the globe to embrace AI.
They advised businesses to take advantage of AI to improve and accelerate their products and services for the benefit of their customers.
Why AI has become a buzzword
AI has been run for decades, but suddenly, AI has become a buzzword. Experts attributed it to three key things.
These are the key reasons: One of them is engagement or engagement. Every time we do any action, it creates AI. Any time that we send a text message, every time we take a phone to make a call, any time that we watch our favourite series on Netflix, it creates data.
“So, there is a huge data explosion. 90% of the data that we use today was created in the past. So, you can imagine. Now, we have no choice not to harness technology like AI for our use”, according to experts.
On the other hand, we also have infrastructure solutions. So, storage is no longer an issue than it was a decade ago. So, because of this, now businesses are trying to leverage AI to transform their organisations.
In short remarks, the Executive Secretary of the Dta Protection Commission of Ghana, Dr Arnold Kavaarpuo used the conference to called on the technology industry players to help his out to protect and enhance data integrity in the country.
The conference being the third edition served as a knowledge-sharing platform for Chief Information Officers (CIOs), technology industry experts and leaders, and academia across Africa to deliberate on key issues in technology and digital innovation.
