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In an interview with Inc. Arabia at GITEX GLOBAL 2024, Awad explained that human centric AI is focusing on creating technology that works with and benefits people, prioritizing their well-being over merely boosting profits, efficiency, or cutting costs.

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00:00My name is Akram Awad. I'm a partner in BCG Middle East. I'm also the global lead for
00:08smart cities in BCG Boston Consulting.
00:16Human-centric AI, basically talk about AI that works with us, for us, and never harms
00:22us, which is the contrast of basically saying this is AI that just serves for improving
00:28profitability or efficiency or reducing cost. And it's very important that even if we are
00:33doing AI for business, that we put the human at the center of it. And there are many ways
00:39in doing that. First, you need to make sure that the use cases are actually serving the
00:43real challenges that people or citizens are looking for. You need to make sure that AI
00:48is inclusive, meaning basically if we have different democracies, if people are speaking
00:52different languages, that we actually cater for all of that. You need to make sure that
00:56AI is fair and ethical in the way how it basically approaches so that, again, it serves
01:01rather than harms the humanity. So all of these components are part of what we refer
01:05to as a human-centric AI.
01:12There are multiple building blocks to get AI right in general and for cities in particular.
01:17For example, the regulations we need, the governments will need to balance between the
01:22ability to innovate and the freedom to innovate and kind of the restrictions of AI regulations
01:27to ensure ethical application and development of AI. And I think some parts of the region
01:33such as UAE and KSA so far are doing a great job in getting this balance right. It's important
01:38also to build the right infrastructure to enable the scaling of adoption for cities
01:42and for other types of applications, whether it's compute, data centers, etc. And again,
01:47there's a lot that is happening here. There are some amazing investments on GPUs and other
01:50technologies to basically do that. The most important part is the human factor, ensuring
01:55that people actually understand AI. They are open to the adoption of AI. They understand
02:01the risks, but also the potential of AI and that they get the right level of literacy.
02:06So we're not just talking about those who can develop and build things with AI, but
02:10everyone. The same way how 15, 20 years ago we were talking about the basic literacy,
02:15today we are talking about every citizen, every resident. We need to understand AI and
02:20our data and research has actually found that the more people understand AI, the more
02:25they appreciate the value. And basically, it controls the perception of risk that comes
02:30with AI.
02:36I think today with everything that we have, with no code or low code tools, there's pretty
02:41much a solution for everything with AI. So it's really about everyone thinking, what
02:46does AI mean to me? As an individual, as a consultant, there's a lot of things that
02:50I can do every day with AI. As a doctor, as a teacher, everyone has something that AI
02:56can benefit from. It's important just to take the time to think about the possibilities,
03:01train themselves on the tools that are available there, upskill or reskill them to test whether
03:09their job is actually still going to be relevant in the future. And if it isn't, they need
03:12to be prepared for the next wave of jobs that will be coming with AI. And of course,
03:18as we grow the society, whether it's the children, the youth, and of course the elderly, everyone
03:23also needs to understand the risks that come with AI. And we need to prepare the young
03:27generations in particular, so that they grow with the ability to appreciate, but also mitigate
03:33the risks.