The Future of Data- Driven Tech: Unfathomable Potential Yet to Master
Over the last decade, the world has been moving fast, where technology played the most critical role by solving socio-economic problems through innovation. We evolved from one stage to another. The evolution of high-speed internet as an enabler made many differences in our lives, from searching for information through Google to AI-driven automated health tips. However, in between the journey of evolution from one to another, we have reached the point of the revolution where technology has reached our doorsteps. YASIR AZMAN,CEO, GrameenphoneYASIR AZMAN,CEO, Grameenphone.
We need to be ready to accept our future based on data and automation or robotics. We shall predict and take measures based on facts rather than taking opinion based actions and wait for the results. It should not come as a surprise to see robotics as parallel citizens of our societies and organizations. We all need to understand the importance of data and accept that AI (artificial intelligence) will replace many of our jobs. However, these will bring new opportunities for the next 100 years, this new sprint of the next 100 years starts now and we need to be prepared for it.
Progress through the Global Pandemic
Despite the global pandemic’s adversity, 2020 is a year with the unending possibilities of high-speed data. IoT(Internet of Things), and Artificial intelligence (AI). 5G technologies have been continuously evolving. It will undoubtedly change the way we spend our lives; our communications will be faster than we can imagine. The very existence of mobile broadband will enter another era regarding speed, and the entire ecosystem will flourish by integrating other technologies. With the progression of 5G, a vast pasture of innovation will be in effect.
Technologies like e-SIM will come into play, bringing IoT onboard. Users will be able to activate and change subscriptions without having to wait for a new sim-card to arrive by mail or go to a store to pick it up. The telecom sector of Bangladesh is preparing for a 5G ecosystem. Especially for the enormous opportunities for enabling IoT based innovations and services it will offer in future. 5G will take data generation to the next level; it will virtualize the entire existential world by connecting data/ AI from one to another. YASIR AZMAN,CEO, Grameenphone
After the IoT, which transformed the way we live, travel, and work by connecting everyday objects to the internet, now we see time for ‘Internet of Bodies’ (IoB). We are entering the era of IoB — collecting our physical data via a range of devices that can be implanted, swallowed, or worn — resulting in a massive amount of health-related data that could improve human well-being around the world, and prove crucial in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. IoB focuses on our human body and health, and it brings opportunities; however, privacy issues are there to be on the top in both legal and ethical grounds.
The Importance of Telecommunication/Data Analytics during COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic—perhaps more than any other event in human history—has demonstrated the critical importance of telecommunications infrastructure in keeping businesses, governments, and societies connected and running. Due to the pandemic’s economic and social disruption, people across the globe rely on technology for information, social distancing, and working from home. The telecommunications sector has seen tremendous technological advances over the past few decades, with mobility, broadband, and internet services growing in capability and reach across the globe. YASIR AZMAN,CEO, Grameenphone
It’s very evident, and we know it well that our infrastructure is one of the most important elements to fight these times of crisis as millions of people rely on our network across the country. When we endured the initial shock with inordinate poise, we started to perceive exciting things around the industry. This pandemic has leapfrogged the adoption of technology and the connected world. Every individual and IoT has started generating trillions of data in minutes. Whether in health or education or be it in financial or agro, the revolution will happen driven by AI. YASIR AZMAN,CEO, GrameenphoneYASIR AZMAN,CEO, Grameenphone.
The telecommunications sector has seen tremendous technological advances over the past few decades, with mobility, broadband, and internet services growing in capability and reach across the globe. After the global pandemic has started, the telecom players — from broadband to mobile to data center operators — have received a surge in traffic data and voice traffic. This is a consequence of driving the acceleration of technological adoption as people adapt to new modes of life.
The ability to accelerate business growth and develop new products results from breakthrough technologies that were core to their disruptive businesses in the first place. Machine learning and AI are hands down the most prevalent of these technologies. In the short-term, people are changing, and companies should update their personalization strategies to keep up with it. Businesses need a way to quickly update their understanding of stakeholders’ wants and needs and promptly retire information that is no longer valid. YASIR AZMAN,CEO, Grameenphone
The enterprises that give people the agency to steer their own digital experiences will be the first to understand their new wants and needs. This is where the role of data analytics starts playing the protagonist.
Customizing Consumer Experience
One thing is sure – data analytics will only gain momentum for the foreseeable future and will be at the core of countless new solutions. Consumers live in a digital world of instant expectations. From digital sales transactions to marketing feedback and refinement, everything in today’s cloud-based business world moves fast. All these rapid transactions produce and compile data at an equally rapid rate. YASIR AZMAN,CEO, GrameenphoneYASIR AZMAN,CEO, Grameenphone.
Putting this information to good use in real-time often means the difference between capitalizing the details for a 360-view of the target audience or losing customers to competitors who do it better.
Anytime we go online, we are producing data and leaving a digital trail of information. All of this data is very complex, there’s so much of it from many different sources, and it’s coming in quickly in real-time. Businesses use all of this data to create customized and improved experiences for all of us. There are billions of gigabytes of data being generated every day by people and technologies worldwide.
AI Assistance will improve Products & Services
Businesses are not just simply collecting all of this data that we are generating. They are analyzing it and finding ways to improve their products and services, which in turn shapes our lives and the experiences we have with the world around us.
A prime example of using big data to fight diseases could be the groundbreaking study in Bangladesh, which has found that using data from mobile phone networks to track the movement of people across the country can help predict where outbreaks of diseases such as malaria are likely to occur, enabling health authorities to take preventative measures.
While malaria is caused by mosquitoes biting people and introducing malaria parasites into the bloodstream, the insects themselves have a short range of travel. It is humans traveling to different parts of the country who can spread the disease. If they are carrying malaria parasites, these can be passed into the local populations through mosquito bites.
The study was conducted by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Telenor Group, Mahidol-Oxford Research Unit, and the National Malaria Elimination Program in Bangladesh, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. The study used anonymized and aggregated mobile data from Grameenphone to model human movement patterns within Southeast Bangladesh.
The study was conducted between 2016 through the beginning of 2019. If AI, Machine Learning and Data Science have been dominating tech as a whole, we can say that in 2020, they will become the tech industry’s foundation. DIY (Do it Yourself) AI is another advanced phase of AI that would become a significant character in tech-trends.
With DIY AI, we refer to an artificial intelligence-related architecture, which is built on AI kits. AI is in high demand but is being held back by a significant shortage of AI talents and skills to develop and train modern AI for production.
AI platforms with automated Machine Learning features will become more and more popular as they provide convenient user-interfaces that make AI available to non-experts. This will help more people and organizations to develop their own AI technology. The promise is that general business users will be able to use AI without assistance from experts, but rather, from AI that trains itself.
Data Security is a means of protection that an organization takes to prevent any third party from unauthorized access to digital data. Data Privacy focuses on the rights of individuals, the purpose of data collection and processing, privacy preferences, and how organizations govern data subjects’ data.
A Step in the Right Direction
When it comes to data analytics, and the utilization of data with such a great premise, the discussion of data privacy is inevitable. It is a broad term, but necessarily data privacy is a part of the data protection area that deals with the proper handling of data. To adequately protect data and comply with data protection laws, we need both Data Privacy and Data Security.
And even though these two terms can look similar, they are not. Data Security is a means of protection that an organization takes to prevent any third party from unauthorized access to digital data.
Data Privacy focuses on the rights of individuals, the purpose of data collection and processing, privacy preferences, and how organizations govern data subjects’ data. It focuses on collecting, processing, sharing, archiving, and deleting the data according to the law. Data security can exist without data privacy, but not the other way around. Data protection is crucial for companies as well as consumers. Data privacy and protection are dependent on the customers too.
They need to know their rights and privileges regarding data protection. It is also their right to to give companies consent to store their data or delete the data they shared with the companies. In this digital era, consumers share their vital information on social media sites, e-commerce sites, and other apps to perform specific actions.
Of late, browsers and websites collect the data of the users and store their search behavior. Data is not only crucial to commercial organizations, but it will also be of high importance for the use of the government authorities to serve its citizens better in the future. It is possible to ensure data security and privacy.
The scale and future of data are truly astounding, and it has already intertwined itself in core aspects of personal and business life. Consumers are becoming more aware of their data privacy rights and data habits, while companies have started behaving responsibly. It will take time to realize the full picture of data science’s strength at the mass level.
We have seen the acceleration of technology used during the pandemic; post-pandemic rebuild and recovery shall get accelerated through technology usage. Advance technology usage, AI riding on data availability, and efficiency through robotics will bring the new winners in the world. Post pandemic is a new start point for all. Enterprises and individuals need to get ready for the next! It is possible!
