Johannesburg, 23 Jul 2019
Following on the success of last year’s inaugural event, ITWeb has announced that its ‘Meeting of Minds: ITWeb Artificial Intelligence 2019' event will feature eight case studies covering several sectors, including financial services, education, transport and insurance.
Angela Mace, CRM and events director at ITWeb, says case studies are a crucial tool for both businesses and delegates to learn the nitty-gritty behind some of AI’s greatest successes. “They offer realistic, complex and contextually rich situations and unpack all the potential points of failure that need to be addressed.”
According to Mace, case studies also serve as a useful bridge between practice and theory, between solutions and real benefits. “They also help to start conversations on the subject, giving attendees an opportunity to dig deep into the challenges they face, the potential courses of action, and how solutions can really address a problem.”
Experts at this year’s event are already employing AI, machine learning and IOT within their businesses and reaping the benefits, and will share their knowledge and experiences.
The first case study, ‘Making AI practical’, will be presented by Muhammad Simjee, EOY:2018 Innovator of the Year & co-founder of A2D24. During his talk, he will unpack the journey from zero to AI in a couple of hours, and how machine learning helped transform his business. “If you know Excel, you can do machine learning,” he adds.
The next case study, ‘Assessing the enablers to an effective machine learning model’, will be hosted by Frans Potgieter, director of analytics at TransUnion Credit Bureau. He will unpack ways to make sure businesses have vast amounts of reliable data for effective machine learning throughput, as well as using simple models for easy deployment. Finally, he will assess to what extent machine learning can take over human capability.
‘Data governance for effective AI throughput’ is third on the agenda, and will be discussed by Ruan Vlok, head of Data Exchange: Data Platforms & AI at Standard Bank of South Africa. His talk centres on avoiding bias by using reliable data, reviewing data privacy and protection policies and methodologies for unbiased and ethical Al and ML operability, and treating data as an asset to improve data literacy across the organisation.
Following that, Lauren Berrington, chief audit executive at Bidvest, will talk about ‘identifying areas for AI and automation and managing the transition’. During her presentation, she will discuss encouraging cross-functional collaboration, tying AI projects to a measurable ROI, as well as reskilling and redeploying the workforce and identifying the skills gap and potential loss of jobs.
Next, ‘Cyber security, a journey to AI’ will be presented by Henry Denner, IT security officer at the Gautrain Management Agency. In his presentation, he will discuss how AI is not only used to improve the user experience, it is also used to attack the very same consumer, as attacks using AI or machine learning are on the rise. To protect against AI-driven cyber attacks requires security tools that have AI or machine learning capabilities, but deploying these is a journey, not a destination, and one that will result in many hits and misses. This case study will take delegates through the journey of incorporating AI in a cyber security programme.
‘Knowing your infrastructure requirements for AI’ is the next case study, and will be hosted by Tinus Visagie, head of Data Integration: Regional Operations at the Absa Group. During his talk, he will discuss preventing bad data from compromising decisions, choosing the best service partner for AI deployment, thinking broadly about the business and AI needs, and making sure businesses have the basic technologies for AI adoption.
During the summit, delegates will also get to meet Libby, Africa’s first robotic librarian. Isak van der Walt, senior IT consultant and MakerSpace manager for the Department of Library Services at the University of Pretoria, will discuss the benefits that Libby has brought to the University of Pretoria’s library. They will also get the opportunity to interact with Libby. Van der Walt will be delivering the presentation remotely, but two of his team members and Libby will be on site to interact with the audience and showcase her functionality.
Next on the agenda, Ernest North, co-founder of Naked Insurance, will discuss ‘the AI-native customer experience’. This case study will discuss how AI-native companies such as Naked are transforming the customer experience by offering new levels of transparency, customer control and convenience. It will offer a perspective on the difference between building AI into the core customer experience and using AI to improve efficiencies in legacy business models.
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