Ozioma Ubabukoh
There will be about 300 per cent increase in mobile broadband subscriptions in the Middle East and Africa by the end of 2022, a report from Ericsson has indicated.
The President, Middle East and Africa, Ericsson, Rafiah Ibrahim, on Monday linked the rise in mobile broadband subscriptions across the two continents to the growth of Artificial Intelligence.
He said, “Mobile broadband subscriptions in the Middle East and Africa are expected to grow by almost three times between 2016 and 2022.
“This clearly illustrates the potential that AI (Artificial Intelligence) will have across the region with the ability to impact growth in key areas that are critical for economic progress including agriculture, healthcare, education and infrastructure development.”
Ibrahim said that to understand developments in the AI space, over 50 successful entrepreneurs, executives and academics leading the charge on new technologies and applications were interviewed.
“In addition, five bold projections that showcase how AI will impact the consumer experience in coming years were developed,” the Ericsson president added.
Meanwhile, together with AT&T Foundry and RocketSpace, Ericsson has released the third edition of ‘The Futurist Report’ series.
According to Ericsson, the report gives an inside look into the cutting-edge technologies and companies that are shaping the future for AI, “and what this means for consumers.”
A statement from Ericsson read in part, “The report also explains how Artificial Intelligence and automation will affect the way we live our lives, and how will brands adapt and cater to changing consumer experiences.
“The AI will have an enormous impact on our daily lives. From enabling hyper-personalisation to saving huge amounts of time on routine tasks, these new tools will fundamentally shift the way we interact with technology in our day-to-day lives.”
The company said that the impact was already being felt in the sub-Saharan Africa, with start-ups developing solutions that have the potential to impact key socio-economic issues.
“For example, a Cape Town-based company created an AI system to assist farming consultants in Africa to identify problem areas in crops such as wheat, macadamia nuts, citrus and sugar cane.
“This technology will enable farmers to develop variable rate fertilisation application maps, predicting the yield of crops and identifying problem areas,” the statement read.
It added, “This is one example of how developing markets are adapting AI to address specific issues that are unique to regional challenges while taking advantage of the predicted mobile broadband growth in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
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