If you're running a financial services firm, and you want to promote digital transformation, you need to decide what exactly needs to be transformed. "In all honesty, what areas aren't there?" says Teddy Flo, general counsel at Zest AI. "The financial services industry is vastly behind other consumer-centric industries in a lot of ways." Any and all transformations should have one goal, and one goal only: delivering to the customer -- ultimately enriching their relationships with banks and nonbanks alike. "You can't change anything for the better if everyone doesn't have equitable access to capital," Flo says. "The way we make decisions on credit should be fair and inclusive and done in a way that takes into account a greater picture of a person."

"Estonia has digitized 99 per cent of all administrative services," according to Sutt. The last per cent is not crucial, but we want to improve customer satisfaction and better understand the customer journey." The new showroom in Hamburg, which features exhibits from both Estonia and the Hanseatic city, links up both AI ecosystems, he noted. "It shows how international collaboration works." Rapid technological change is on the horizon and likely to outpace the developments witnessed over the last 25 years.

The global business value derived from Artificial Intelligence (AI) is projected to reach over $3,9 trillion by 2022, according to industry analyst firm Gartner. The firm expects that in the next few years, Artificial Intelligence used to support data science and other algorithm-based applications is going to become the most common use for AI, comprising about 44 percent of the total. To face industry projections, the population needs to prepare by promoting education in AI. Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) is the world's first graduate-level AI university. Named after His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Armed Forces, the AI university will introduce a new model of academia and research to the field of Artificial Intelligence.

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has launched a'future centre for customer happiness' at Ibn Battuta Mall. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, inaugurated the centre. According to Dewa, this is the first integrated smart customer happiness centre in Dubai, which depends on artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. "The centre relies on the latest technologies to achieve customers' satisfaction and exceed their expectations. It has smart self service booths to help customers complete their transactions with ease. These include Rammas, the virtual employee that uses AI to answer queries; the Tayseer smart bill payment platform; live chat, and a future services section to design and develop Dewa's future services," said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of Dewa.