The expansion of e-commerce, distance learning in education and remote work as well as health care services during the pandemic prompted the greater use of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud technology in order to cope with big data.

AI and cloud solutions are on the rise in every field, from production to marketing. These, as well as the priorities of the business world, were the matters addressed this week at the Ventures60 event.

The big data occupation has been generally translated into more overtime and more boring work. Yet, many institutions are now opting for cloud technology and artificial intelligence to protect themselves from the big data drain.

Human and AI adaptation

Zehra Çataltepe, the founding partner of the AI venture Tazi.ai and one of the most prominent academics of Istanbul Technical University (ITÜ), stressed that human and artificial intelligence should understand each other better and work together.

"We used to explain ourselves to engineers beforehand. Now we are mostly trying to explain to people from the business world. Because the business world decides what it wants to do and its priorities," Çataltepe said.

"We think that the harmonious work of human and artificial intelligence, by getting to know each other better, will make a difference. The best businesspeople can decide which problems we find solutions to."

Needs increase in pandemic

As soon as people change their behavior, it is not easy for institutions to adapt, Çataltepe noted.

"During the radical changes experienced throughout the pandemic period, the available data did not produce a solution. We must produce the right solution with less data. That is when artificial intelligence abilities emerge. As behavior changes, so does the data," she said.

Therefore, she added, data is not prepared in one go and the next process is not simply moved onto. "It is necessary to continue the dynamic data cleaning business. In this regard, we produce world-class solutions for the insurance industry in the U.S. It is a big market, and we focus on the demands of this market. Tazi will make it easier for businesspeople to use artificial intelligence solutions in the insurance industry."

AI and happiness

Addressing the Ventures60 event, Etiya Artificial Intelligence Product and Solutions Manager Ozan Tan stressed the relationship between artificial intelligence and happiness.

Noting that the use of artificial intelligence to minimize errors will relieve both the customer and the employee involved in that process, Tan said, "Solving many critical routine jobs in every sector with artificial intelligence support increases employee and customer satisfaction. As a result, the error rate decreases in the results obtained here, productivity increases and employees are enabled to focus on more creative works. That is why the use of artificial intelligence directly affects customer and employee happiness."

Goodbye to boring routine

In his speech, Tansu Yeğen, the vice president of UiPath Europe, an artificial intelligence solutions company with significant experience in the information sector, explained that artificial intelligence solutions cause them to look at the works they did in the past in a different way.

"We used to focus on digital transformation in what we did in the past, but we did not work hard on weekends before. However, due to mobile devices and customer demands, we started working even on weekends and late hours," said Yeğen.

Moreover, he said most of the work consisted of boring presentations and spreadsheets. "Now I think we could solve the work we did with UiPath solutions in minutes, not days or hours. We first learn the routine work you do on the screen and then solve it with robots. Thus, you can spend time on more creative work and developing customer relationships. If you are in production, you focus on the details where you will make the product perfect."

Flexibility of the cloud

Stating that they are focusing on making long-term investments due to the disruptions in chip supply, NGN Data Center and Cloud Solutions Director Beyazıt Öztürk addressed the increasing demands during the pandemic period.

Öztürk noted that demands for distance education and remote work increased the use of pay-as-you-go systems, which are flexible and do not require large technology investments, thanks to the advantages of cloud solutions.

"We started to install application software on the infrastructure investments we made. We tried to respond to the demands of domestic and foreign customers with local cloud software. From time to time, we struggled to keep up with the demands. However, cloud solutions offered flexible and efficient work in such a period," he added.