By: Nana
Appiah Acquaye
The Chief
Executive Officer of e& Egypt, Hazem Metwally, has said artificial intelligence must be
deployed in ways that are cost-effective and sustainable while improving
services for customers and increasing productivity for individuals and
businesses.
Metwally made the remarks
during an FDC Summit session with colleagues from Egypt’s technology sector,
where discussions focused on the future of cloud computing and artificial
intelligence.
He said the mobile network
remains central to major technology shifts and described it as “the powerhouse
of all the meaningful technology trends.”
On artificial intelligence,
Metwally said technology adoption must be guided by economic discipline and
practical applications.
“AI is powerful, and like
any technology, it has to be cost effective to be useful,” he said.
He said e& Egypt
experiments with open source models where available, adapts them to its own use
cases and invests in technologies that create direct or indirect changes for
customers.
“Use existing models for
agility and time to market,” Metwally said, adding that the sustainability of a
service should be measured beyond its technological capabilities.
“A service is future-proof
when its economics still work in five years, not only its technology,” he said.
Metwally also addressed the
impact of AI on the workplace, saying major technology shifts change the nature
of roles and create new opportunities for people who acquire the skills needed
to work with emerging tools.
“Every technology shift
changes the way we work. For the major ones like AI it changes the shape of
roles, new ones appear, and the people who learn the new tools end up doing
more, not less,” he said.
He described AI as a
multiplier for individuals and businesses, arguing that its potential lies in
enabling people to increase their capabilities and output.
“I think of AI as a
multiplier for individuals and businesses: the same person, producing many
times what they could before,” Metwally said.
“The opportunity is not to
be replaced; it is to become super charged and far more capable.”
Metwally said technology
providers have a responsibility to ensure that the services they offer remain
accessible and useful to the people and businesses they serve.
“What we owe the people and
the businesses that we serve is simple to say: services that are affordable,
empowering, and always improving,” he said.
He said the standard should
apply to people, technology, the sectors in which companies operate and the
economics required to maintain sustainable services.
