Software firm, SAS Africa, has said that the application of analytics economy will help in solving the toughest business problems and acceleration of innovation.
Mr Desan Naidoo, Vice President, SAS Africa, made the call at a workshop in Lagos on Tuesday.
Naidoo, while speaking on the topic “Analytics Economy: Accelerating Your Path to Value” reported that an analytic economy is emerging and that such economy, requires a blend of data, analytics and collaboration to succeed.
“It is not just data, it is accessible data, fueled by advances in computing power, connectivity and powerful analytics.
“In the future, experiences will be smart, intuitive and informed by analytics that are not seen but felt via new business, personal and operational engagement models.
“Enabling this interaction requires Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications that can sense, analyse and respond to their environments in an intelligent manner.
“The ability to leverage on data and analytics makes an organisation to make progress; so, an analytic economy, should be built on opportunities in the data,” he said.
Naidoo said that creating a cooperative environment in which man and machine work seamlessly together would take more than a smart machine.
According to him, deploying smart systems in ways humans find natural and intuitive is science and art.
He added that AI must have the ability to ingest information and or interact using natural sensory constructs.
“This may include spoken and written language, visual observation of pictures, videos or objects and so forth.
“In other words, today’s AI solutions should be able to observe, analyse and respond intelligently to their environment in the native tongue,” he said.
Naidoo noted that the younger generation preferred to do banking transactions digitally.
“Most of them prefer a digital channel that understands what they want,” he said.
He said that SAS had solutions that could relay messages and transaction to customers without any physical contact with those in the bank.
Naidoo said that the organisation had also developed a solution that could detect fraud at all levels before it happened.
” In the case of fraud, it cuts across the financial sector, industries, public sector.
“This detection mechanism is what makes artificial intelligence a very important part of technology,” he said.
Mr Alex Kwiatkowski, Head, Global Banking Practice, SAS, said that the African banking sector had slow pace of digital transformation.
Kwiatkowski said that for the banking industry to digitally transform, they would need to tackle factors that influences changes in the digital world.
He listed some of them as: customer experience, regulatory compliance, system regulation; operational efficiency and evolving ecosystem.
“The digital world does not allow competitors. If you are not prepared and are not efficient, you are dead.
“Migrating transactions and sales to digital channels brings benefits, and so the country needs to encourage it.
“To do this, the country should encourage polices tailored to include women and people in the rural communities,” he said.