The Gulf is uniquely placed to drive AI innovation post-pandemic, according to Alteryx-commissioned YouGov research which revealed that a staggering 50 percent of Gulf employees surveyed are now able to automate their day-to-day tasks.
The regional figure is in comparison to just 16 percent of UK workers and 24 percent of German workers who reported their ability to automate similar tasks.
Despite the core building blocks to success being present, 97 percent of workers reported that training needs to be made available to all data workers to “truly unlock business value”. The survey highlighted the issues arising due to inconsistently applied training programmes, in which only existing experts, including qualified data scientists, are receiving vital data upskilling.
“While data is increasingly becoming the common language of business, few receive the training needed to deliver consistent benefit from it, with the remainder relegated to working in the dark. The lack of foundational data skills remains a significant stumbling block on the Gulf’s upward trajectory towards AI led innovation,” said Alan Jacobson, chief data and analytic officer at Alteryx.
With employees lacking basic data literary skills needed for today’s business environment, 27 percent of data scientists spend at least nine hours each week on basic data tasks such as cleaning, blending, and shaping and 14 percent of data scientists surveyed spend at least 30 hours on the same tasks.
“The lack of consistent training, and subsequent lack of standardised knowledge is a core challenge for the Gulf’s future technology projects – particularly new AI strategies,” said Kerry Koutsikos, regional vice president, MEA at Alteryx.
“Instead of spending their time on advanced AI projects or value-driving work, data scientists are having their time sapped by basic data tasks that could – and should – be completed by other workers,” he added.
As workers continue to be excluded from data training, the survey revealed that the region is now primed for a data ethics disaster, with 39 percent of workers now gravitating towards informal mentoring and 24 percent towards informal user groups.
“Big data needs context and human intelligence when applied to AI. What we now see is an AI ethics conundrum. If not driven by data science, unintentional data biases can creep in, leading to perpetuated discriminatory practices, as well as inaccurate and inconsistent AI models,” Jacobson said.
A third (31 percent) of MEA business leaders believe solving this challenge is “someone else’s problem”, in which Koutsikos commented: “Many business leaders believe that transformation and AI projects are exclusively about the technology, but any technology is only ever a tool to deliver human ingenuity.”
“Data work and automation are taking place regardless of whether training is available…It’s imperative that business leaders minimise the challenges that are being faced by delivering a core foundation of data skills to all workers and removing pressure from data and technology teams,” he added.
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