Businesses urged to increase AI application

Experts shared how important AI can be in business activities

An online forum on the application of AI in business activities was held at the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) on August 18 where experts shared their experiences and studies about the importance of AI in production and life.

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy made a speech at the forum

"The event aims to promote online platforms when digital transformation is being more widely applied in sectors in Industry 4.0,” he noted.

The forum was held with the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to update information to help businesses stabilise activities and recover from faults in the supply chain, thus ensuring jobs for labourers. AI is considered a solution to help businesses save cost and time.

Joumana Ghosn, director of Applied Machine Learning Research at Mila AI institute (Canada), said that AI is being applied widely in life, from healthcare to mining, but most of businesses are still inexperienced in the field. With AI, businesses should keep an open mindset for improvement and keep calm with mistakes because this is a process of self-studying and perfection.

The Mila representative recommended businesses to apply AI because it is simply necessary. She also emphasised the role of high-ranking leaders, human resources, and readiness to deal with risks.

Representatives from VietinBank and Vingroup also agreed with the importance of AI in business activities.

Nguyen Thanh Lam from VinAI Research of Vingroup said that when Vsmart was introduced, VinAI Research was able to produce FaceID technology, instead of spending a huge amount of money on buying it from China or the US. However, money remains an important factor in the production of quality AI products.

Sharing these views, Dr Stefan Hajkowicz from Australia said that AI is present in all economic sectors and localities in his country. At present, the Australian government and leading experts and businesses are seeking to prevent economic slowdown from COVID-19 thanks to business activities and the development of new industries applying AI.

According to experts, while the application of AI has long been popular in the world, Vietnam is still a step behind,

“The important thing is to have key national strategies and select the proper sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, agro-fisheries-forestry to tap into their strong points,” said expert Nguyen Xuan Phong.

Tran The Trung, head of FPT Technology Research Institute, said that data plays an important role in developing AI. However, the use of data has been a sticking point because of the unclear legal framework, hindering businesses in accessing data.

The forum is one of the activities that are part of the annual 2020 Vietnam AI Day (AI4VN 2020) which is jointly launched by the MoST, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, and the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee with support of Aus4Innovation, and FPT.

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