Dubai: Spending on cognitive and artificial intelligence (AI) systems in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) will grow by 31.8 per cent this year to $37.49 million (Dh138 million) and reach $114.22 million in 2021.
In terms of the technologies used in cognitive/AI implementations, Megha Kumar, research director at International Data Corporation, said that software will continue to account for the largest portion of the investment in 2021 at 44.7 per cent, followed by IT and business services at 35.0 per cent.
However, she said that the IT and business services segment will grow at a much faster rate during 2016-2021 period, with IDC projecting a growth rate of 49 per cent for this space versus 27.7 per cent for software. Hardware will account for the remaining 20.3 per cent of spending on cognitive/AI implementations in 2021, with this segment growing at a growth rate of 23.8 per cent.
“Given the exponential growth we are seeing in data volumes, organisations across the region are increasingly looking to leverage solutions that can help improve the efficiency and productivity of their employees,” she said.
Cognitive/AI systems can play a key role in helping to automate and augment processes, which is why IDC expects to see sustained growth in spending on such solutions over the coming period, she said.
The use of cognitive/AI systems will see significant growth across all industries, although IDC’s research suggests the biggest opportunity lies in the financial sector, where an estimated $28.32 million will be spent on cognitive/AI solutions in 2021, accounting for a quarter of overall spending.
This will be followed by the public sector (including government, education, and health care) with 19.8 per cent share and manufacturing with 14.1 per cent.
Intelligent agents
IDC expects the fastest growing use cases to be defence, terrorism, investigation, and government intelligence; automated customer service; and fraud analysis and investigation.
“Cognitive systems will increasingly utilise natural language processing, content aggregation, and machine learning to enable applications for a wide range of use cases,” Kumar said.
“At the consumer level, we are already seeing this with the likes of Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google Now, and such intelligent agents will become increasingly common in the enterprise setting as well. Indeed, we are already seeing this in action in the UAE, where cognitive assistants called Eva and Rashid have been deployed by Emirates NBD and Dubai’s Department of Economic Development, respectively.”
“Of all the countries in the MEA region, the UAE is clearly a pioneer when it comes to the use of cognitive/AI systems.
“Cementing this position, the country’s government recently launched the ‘UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence’, which aims to provide a comprehensive framework for the use of AI across various sectors and services. At IDC, we expect this initiative to fuel demand for a new range of skills and services within the country over the coming years,” she said.
