Artificial Intelligence is driving a paradigm shift in how nations prepare for the digital economy and could almost double the value of the global digital economy to $23 trillion by 2025, from $12.9 trillion in 2017 when it accounted for 17.1% of global GDP.
However, a scarcity of AI talent worldwide threatens this growth, says new research from Huawei, IT online reported.
The Global Connectivity Index 2018, now in its fifth year, found that industries are embedding AI in key enabling technologies–broadband, data centers, Cloud, big data and IoT–to turn connectivity into intelligent connectivity, unleashing innovation to propel a new wave of economic growth.
Today, the digital economy is driven by the consumer-driven internet. Increasingly, industries are leveraging intelligent connectivity to create whole new business models, products, processes and services that will breathe new life into the GCI S-curve and open a new cycle of economic growth.
The GCI 2018 also discovered that to effectively deploy AI on a large scale, countries need three equally important components in place: computing power, labeled data and algorithms. Today, Frontrunners–the most advanced of three clusters of nations in the GCI–due to their robust information and communication technology infrastructure lead the Adopters and Starters’ clusters in all three components.
But the big challenge for all three GCI clusters is scarcity of AI developer talent. Governments need to rethink education for a future workplace redefined by AI and start building a healthy, collaborative and open AI ecosystem to attract and retain competitive AI talent.
This year, the GCI broadened its research scope from 50 to 79 nations, marking the second time it has enlarged its purview since 2015.
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