A roundtable on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its prospect in Bangladesh with the title ‘Artificial Intelligence: The Next Big Thing for Bangladesh’ was organised in Dhaka on Monday.

eGeneration Ltd, one of the leading management consulting, technology services and outsourcing companies in Bangladesh, has organised the roundtable that kicked off on at 4:00pm in Janata Tower Software Technology Park (STP), says a press release.

Shameem Ahsan, Chairman of eGeneration group, chaired the roundtable. Mustafa Jabbar, President, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) was present as the Chief Guest on the occasion.

SM Ashraful Islam, Executive Vice Chairman of eGeneration Group and former Executive Director of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC); Mustafa Jabbar, President BASIS; Anir Chowdhury, Policy Advisor, Prime Minister’s Office; Professor Dr. Chowdhury Mofizur Rahman, Pro-Vice Chancellor, UIU; Prof. Dr. Mohammad Mahfuzul Islam, Department of CSE, BUET and President of Bangladesh Computer Society; Tareque Barkatullah, Director (National Data Center), BCC and Mr. Shehzad Noor Taus, Deep Learning Software Engineer at NVIDIA and former Machine Learning Developer of IBM talked about the prospects of AI in Bangladesh. The keynote speakers portrayed the diverse opportunities of the AI technologies and the ways it can be put to use in different sectors and solve problems. The speakers also talked about new technologies based on deep learning, IoT and sensors.

Mustafa Jabbar said, ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI) is undeniably the future of IT and changing the world for better. BASIS plans to implement IoT, AI, Robotics and many such latest technologies at the policy level. With the support from our Government, we will initiate projects that can utilise our local expertise and help secure a position in the global market.’

Mr. Shameem Ahsan said, ‘AI technologies can be put to use in different sectors. In Bangladesh, we have many talented young Bangladeshis who are working on solving variety of problems by using AI technologies. From eGeneration we are making a Natural Language Processor (NLP) for Bangla that will integrate machine learning and AI. However, we need to train people in new AI-related skills which is currently absent in our university curriculums.

Globally, U.S. tech giants are opening research labs around the world. Chinese companies are also following their lead by opening Silicon Valley research labs. We should too start chalking out plans to potentially create an intelligent economy powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning over the next several years. eGeneration with the support from academia, ICT Division and a2i will work to create skilled human resources in AI and establish Bangladesh as an AI hub.’

SM Ashraful Islam said, ‘The market opportunity for AI in Bangladesh is enormous. The benefits of AI for public health, agriculture, traffic management, national security, manufacturing and service industries pose a lot of opportunities for us that we must explore. Collaboration between government, academia and industry is needed to prepare for adoption of AI in Bangladesh like what we have seen in Israel. Israel is successful because there’s collaboration.’

The important insights that came out from the discussion were very prophesying, as Artificial intelligence has become a core ingredient in many of the tools, apps, gadgets, and services that we all use each day to make life easier. In addition, it is transforming how we do businesses too. Recent AI research from Forrester shows that 58% of businesses have considered AI technologies, but only 12% are actually using these systems, leaving a huge opportunity for early adopters to pull ahead of their competitors.