The impact of Artificial Intelligence requires collaboration between companies, universities and NGOs, in order to jointly evaluate “data and information more quickly and to achieve their objectives”, he highlighted today in the inaugural speech of theAI & Big Data Congressthe vice president of Product, International Markets and Globalization of Procore, Anna N. Schlegel, for whom “the alliances that are based on the data found fastest and the teams that provide the most credible information are the ones that will win”.
Schlegel, recognised as the world’s most influential woman in technology by Analytics Insight magazine, said that data “are a corporate gold mine because they help you figure out where to go and where to invest” and that all departments need them. This means “AI is the only way to fast-track your insights.”
“Whoever can build these agile data teams, whoever can get automated access, will be able to make the best decisions, get to market faster, collaborate on global patents and solve problems more easily,” she argued.
Rolling out data analytics and Artificial Intelligence “is a lever for enhancing performance by changing the way specific processes are carried out,” added Congress director Joan Mas, also the director of the Centre of Innovation for Data tech and Artificial Intelligence (CIDAI), which is organising the event, and the Eurecat technology centre’s Digital Division. “It additionally enables businesses to predict future scenarios and thus anticipate specific challenges or problems.”
“Catalonia has the capabilities to spearhead AI development and uptake in Europe and is becoming a global technology hub in artificial intelligence,” commented Daniel Marco, Director General for Innovation and the Digital Economy in the Government of Catalonia. “We have a robust ecosystem of universities, innovation centres and specialised businesses which is growing year after year, attracting international investment and generating a significant economic impact on the country.”
“We need to leverage AI and big data’s potential to drive proactive government when it comes to delivering public services and engaging with the public,” argued Michael Donaldson, Chief Technology Officer and CIO at Barcelona City Council. “However, we will also have to factor in the ethical dimension, non-discrimination and privacy and digital rights safeguards.”
“We are at a time when Artificial Intelligence is starting to be useful for business processes and it is not only large firms which are seeing results,” said Xavier Torra, chair of Eurecat. “Small and medium-sized enterprises are also hardwiring Artificial Intelligence into their production processes and reaping a very significant return in terms of competitiveness.”
Ethics and talent in Artificial Intelligence
The first day of the AI & Big Data Congress looked at the ethical principles involved when companies and organisations deploy Artificial Intelligence solutions and also at AI and its potential for identifying solutions for the common good. The session, moderated by the director of the Intelligent Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Research Center at IDEAI-UPC, Karina Gibert, was attended by the Commissioner for Digital Innovation, Ethics Mailbox and Good Governance of the Barcelona City Council, Michael Donaldson; the director of the Ethics Observatory in Artificial Intelligence of Catalonia (OEIAC), Albert Sabater; the director of Research at the Institute for Experiential AI of Northeastern University, Ricardo Baeza-Yates, and the director of Corporate, External and Legal Affairs Institutional Relations (CELA) of Microsoft Ibérica, Montse Pardo.
The congress also hosted a presentation exploring strategies for attracting and retaining talent in Artificial Intelligence. The founder of AlwaysPeopleFirst Technologies, Xavi Escales, participated; the co-founder and co-director of SokoTech, Mariona Cíller; the Head Analytics and AI Solution Leader of Aggity, Javier Campelo, and it was presented by the Coordinator of the Catalonia AI strategy (Catalonia.AI) at the Department of the Vice-Presidency and Digital Policies and Territory of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Daniel Santanach.
In health and wellbeing, experts from the TIC Salut Social Foundation, the SDG Group, everis, an NTT DATA Company, the Computer Vision Centre, AlGecko Technologies and Barcelona City Council shared several examples of successful proofs of concept from the sector standpoint. One of them is the Artificial Intelligence-based tool presented by Jordi Escayola, Advanced Analytics manager at the SDG Group, which uses a smartphone camera to generate indicators of the overall state of health and wellbeing of people and also provide information to health centres which have patients using this device for GDPR compliance.
Framed within the strategyCatalonia.AIof the Generalitat of Catalonia and coordinated byEureka, the CIDAI is a public-private initiative that has the support of the Generalitat of Catalonia through the Department of the Vice-Presidency and Digital Policies and Territory; Barcelona City Council; the Barcelona Supercomputing Center; the Computer Vision Center; everis, an NTT DATA Company; the i2CAT Foundation; Microsoft; SDG Group; theIntelligent Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Research Center (IDEAI) from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia · BarcelonaTech (UPC) and Eurecat.
CIDAI supports generating, validating and transferring reliable Artificial Intelligence technologies with high added value to foster technology uptake and innovation in the country’s strategic sectors and its businesses and institutions as well as sharing these technologies and best practices with society at large.
The AI & Big Data Congress is an event organised by CIDAI and coordinated by Eurecat. It is sponsored by the Government of Catalonia, Barcelona City Council, the SDG Group, Microsoft, everis, an NTT DATA Company, and CaixaBank.