The Turkey Artificial Intelligence Summit, organized last week by the Turkey Artificial Intelligence Initiative (TRAI) for the second time, has shown that the Turkish private sector acknowledges artificial intelligence (AI) as an important factor for successful economic competition in the future. Held at UNIQ Istanbul with the motto "Algorithm Leaders Meet Up," the event hosted more than 50 Turkish and foreign speakers who are experts in their fields.
The speakers explained how AI can be employed more effectively in different sectors by providing examples and depicted the future of AI in various fields such as the retail industry, the insurance sector, fashion, marketing and business world. In his keynote speech, TRAI founder Halil Aksu stressed that the age of algorithms has already started, adding that institutions and even countries will compete through data and algorithms from now on, and those who cannot acquire the required competencies in terms of AI strategies and road maps will be out of the game. "We have seen in this summit that our country is ready for the AI age. Thanks to the Turkey Artificial Intelligence Initiative, we have also seen that everybody converged and engaged in great collaborations, while companies believe and invest in this technology. Smarter futures are ahead of us," Aksu said.
During the summit, global technology giants such as Microsoft, Google Cloud, Amazon, SAP, IBM, HPE and Dentsu Aegis spoke on their AI visions and success stories. Many inspiring and successful projects were also shared at the summit, including the Borusan Automotive Project supported by Artiwise solution, the AI achievements of Aksigorta, Sorun's Chatbot projects, Oredata's digital decision projects, HOPİ's fashion solutions with Bunsar technologies, and the AI-based coffee fortune-telling application Faladdin. Leading companies from Turkey in various sectors and fields, including the automotive, insurance, banking and digital marketing sectors, explained their practices and goals related to AI.
Some of the noteworthy speeches and presentations made during the summit were entitled, "AI and natural language processing in the customer experience," "AI in insurance," "AI in fashion and clothing retail: Past, present and future," "On brain, AI, genetics and the future of humanity," "How does dialogue-based AI transform sectors?" "What will AI change in the retail industry?" and "AI: Where do we stand in the talent pool?"
In addition, the U.S.-based AI Collaborator's founder James Briggs and Kuwait-based Kuwait.ai's founder Jasem Al Mutawa, who are the global partners of TRAI, spoke on developments in the use of AI by drawing examples from their regions. Both speakers underscored that global partnerships in this field are of critical importance.
The TRAI Summit ended with a platform that drew together national AI entrepreneurs and investors. To that end, the summit closed with TRAI Startup Demo Night, in which TRAI startups searching for investors made presentations to a panel comprising eight national investors and competed to receive investment.