MTN Business CTIO Roundtable: AI augments human capabilities not make them redundant – Bernard Acquah

Chief Information Officer of MTN Ghana, Bernard Acquah, has reiterated the need for African businesses to harness AI to unlock untapped opportunity and growth to meet the challenges of the fast-moving world market. He said the true potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) lies in augmenting human skills and enhancing outputs and not to take over jobs.

Speaking at the second edition of the MTN Business CTIO Roundtable Africa in Accra on the theme “Driving Business Value Through Data and AI”, Bernard Acquah insisted that AI offers immense potential in efficiency, innovation, decision-making, and customer focus, and that “it is as good as the data you feed it.”

He stated that the future of business lies in human-AI collaboration, hence addressing potential challenges thoughtfully is crucial for that partnership and collaboration. He said addressing the challenges and focusing on responsible implementation, businesses can harness AI to thrive in the future.

“Humans and AI excel at different aspects of decision-making. Think of AI as a tool that can process immense amounts of information, identify trends, and provide insights that humans can leverage for strategic decisions. Imagine having a tool that can analyse immensely large collections of behavioural and sales information, and is able to help you to decide on what the next trends will be, or what a customer may do next based on their historic behaviour, as captured in your database.

“It’s important to acknowledge that AI comes with challenges that businesses need to be aware of. We need to be conscious of potential biases in the data, the need for more explainable AI, and the importance of robust data management practices. Addressing these challenges is crucial for responsible and effective AI implementation,” he noted.

On her part, the Chief Enterprise Business Officer at MTN Ghana, Angela Opoku, stated that in an era of digitization, data and AI are essential for business transformation through innovation and remaining competitive across industries.

IT was her argument that, industry players and stakeholders, have crucial role in leveraging the power of new technologies like AI, to drive organizations and country forward. She assured businesses of MTNs support on this new journey of exploring new technologies for business growth.

“Enterprise Services seeks to translate the opportunities that Data and AI presents into solutions for all SMEs to become digital without having their in-house IT infrastructure. MTN Business provides that platform to make digital adaptations more accessible to SMEs,” She noted.

The Chief Executive Officer of Chenosis, Saad Syed, In is presentation asserted that Africa has only 700,000 Developers serving the continent while in America there are 2.4 million serving the states.

He said Africa is currently the only continent that does not have a software industry and that Chenosis wants to contribute to Africa’s contribution in the software domain.

He added that AI is now so advanced that there are virtual coders who will take your semantic input and produce the results, insisting that, AI is at the core of everything we do today.

“The thing I love about this country is the appetite for experimentation We are using AI to complement the competencies of data and APIAfrica is going to power the world. We can equip the younger generations to build apps and solutions. Not just to solve our problems but for the rest of the world,” he added

The CTIO Roundtable provides a knowledge-sharing platform for technology leaders and academia across Africa to deliberate on key issues in technology and digital innovation. Participants at the Roundtable shared industry insights, discussed challenges for solutions to would drive digital transformation in a globally connected world while supporting local innovation.

The Forum also offered unique opportunities for fostering strategic partnerships among industry leaders and stakeholders, deepened engagements among technology leaders, government, and key policy makers, encouraged innovation and served as an opportunity for leaders to contribute to the digital transformation agenda.

Other speakers at the event included, Co-Founder & CEO Of Jetstream Africa – Miishe Addy, Vice President of Ghana Fintech & Payments Association – Richard Nunekpeku (ESQ), Founder & CEO RaIma – Rashida Musa, and Managing Partner of Hatchery & Coral Reef Innovation Hub – Richard Osei-Anim.

By Jeorge Wilson Kingson || ghananewsonline.com.gh