KARACHI: Maritime Affairs Minister Qaiser Ahmed Shaikh has said that artificial intelligence (AI) has big scope and can prove to be very useful for the developing countries such as Pakistan.

He was speaking at the day-long 3rd International Conference on the ‘Innovation and Disruption: Business Success Through AI’ held here on Thursday by the School of Business Studies, Institute of Business Administration (IBA-SBS), at the IBA’s main campus.

Highlighting the importance of AI in modernising industry and improving operational efficiencies, the minister lamented the fact that most businesses in Pakistan were running on old patterns. “Being family operations handed down through generations, they have no concept of innovation. They have not taken advantage of AI. The same is the case with the educational institutions here,” he said while emphasising the significance of AI as it offers immense opportunities for the country’s youth and can propel Pakistan towards greater economic achievements.

Sindh Higher Education Commission (SHEC) chairman Dr Tariq Ravi spoke about how AI can be utilised in the best of ways. Sharing his views on how artificial intelligence can be applied in education, he said the mindsets needed to change as we incorporate AI into education. “Our business leaders and our industrialists still unfortunately don’t understand the significance of education in our progress,” he said.

“Through strategic partnership with industry leaders, development agencies and international organisations, we are working to bridge the gap between the academia and industry.”

He added that by bringing together leaders, practitioners, policy makers from around the world, we can collectively explore the possibilities, challenges, and ethical complications of AI-driven innovations and disruptions.

In her keynote speech, professor of leadership and management for healthcare and director of the Global Business School for Health, University College London (UCL), Dr Nora Colton spoke about universal healthcare. “Health needs cannot be left unaddressed. Universal healthcare is impossible to achieve in our current model without innovation, and that’s where innovation and AI come in,” she said, adding that health needs left unaddressed would impact economic productivity.

“In emerging market countries, fiscal space for healthcare will always be a trade-off between other priorities. If new innovations and better models for healthcare are not invested in, health costs will continue to expand without the desired outcomes while crowding out other sectors,” she pointed out.

She said that in healthcare, AI was being used for imagining new health technologies, keeping electronic health records, remote patient monitoring, plus there were AI-enabled virtual assistants and chatbots to provide 24/7 patient support and triage. The convergence of AI with other technologies such as genomes, robotics and blockchain could be used for advancing precision medicine, she said.

Other keynote speakers included department chair of the DAN Management, Western University, Canada, Dr Geoffery Wood, and associate professor of finance, Montpellier Business School, France, and Poznam University of Economics and Business, Poland, Dr Adam Zaremba.

Earlier, during his address of welcome, IBA Executive Director, Dr S Akbar Zaidi said the presence of artificial intelligence was causing major interference, disruption in how people thought about life, therefore, it was important to hold such conferences addressing the evolving challenges and opportunities presented by AI.

The dean of the SBS and the conference chair, Dr Abdullah Zafar Sheikh, also shed light on the potential of AI to drive business success. “We are living in an era in which it is nearly impossible to live without artificial intelligence,” he said.

Associate professor of the SBS and conference convener, Dr Irum Saba, meanwhile, emphasised the uniqueness of IBA’s SBS International Conference in bringing together academic scholars from Pakistan and around the world, along with industry practitioners.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2024