The Türkiye AI Summit kicked off on Thursday in Istanbul, bringing together leading figures from the country's AI ecosystem, local and global technology companies, academics and entrepreneurs.
Organized by Türkiye AI Initiative (TRAI) for the eighth time, the two-day event is held under the main theme "Beyond Intelligence." The first day of the event featured several sessions, where speakers discussed the transformative impact of AI on the business world and Türkiye's advancements and work in this field through concrete use cases.
The event, attended by representatives from 340 institutions across various sectors and over 1,500 participants, will continue online for its second day, the organizers said.
For the first time, the program was held on three stages – vision, impact and innovation.
The summit started with a keynote by TRAI founder Halil Aksu titled “Beyond Intelligence: Time to Act.”
Stating that it is time to talk about artificial intelligence even beyond, Aksu continued: “AI is everywhere. Trillions of dollars are being invested in this technology. Yet, its impact on companies is still limited."
"No matter how intelligent AI is, we must be able to utilize its brain and power, and reflect it in processes, business models, customer experience, and operations. Today, at this summit, our slogan ‘Beyond Intelligence’ emphasizes this," he said.
The vision stage, one of three, hosted sessions on global trends and strategic perspectives shaping the future of artificial intelligence.
Peter Sondergaard, the founder of advisory firm Sondergaard Group and a former Gartner executive, evaluated the challenges organizations face in scaling AI and the factors that reveal its true potential. He noted that challenges of AI are now business challenges, highlighting the importance of having a clear vision or a "digital north star."
He also touched upon the role of software, mentioning a concept of "economics of AI software development," and offering an example of the immense potential of software developers to contribute to an organization or national economies.
Rafay CEO Haseeb Budhani outlined a road map for the transformation needed for Türkiye's AI ecosystem to rapidly advance, from infrastructure investments to innovation. He mentioned that users want a use-case as a service, while pointing it as one of the issues to look at on the path forward, in addition to focusing on developer experience and doing more with hyper-expensive AI hardware.
HPE Türkiye, Balkans, Caucasus and Central Asia General Manager Güngör Kaymak, in his speech, focused on sustainability and sovereignty in AI. He cited estimates that the global impact of AI investments could reach $22.3 trillion while accounting for approximately 3.7% of global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030.
Yandex Türkiye CEO Aleksander Popovskiy, for his part, explained how AI is transforming the internet search experience.
The impact stage, on the other hand, focused on the transformation AI brings to various sectors, while the innovation stage was centered around themes of entrepreneurship, sustainability, and generative AI. The latter also evaluated the importance of the right timing and location in scaling artificial intelligence investments in Europe, and the impact of the local cloud on the ecosystem and entrepreneurship in Türkiye.
Founded in 2017, the TRAI is a pioneering platform that aims to create awareness in AI, encourage collaboration, while it also offers consulting and education services and programs.
The summit was supported by global and local technology companies such as AWS, Digitopia, Etiya, Global Bilgi, HPE/NVIDIA, KKB/Kloudeks, Meta, Rafay/Exodus, SabancıDx/Bulutistan, SmartIQ and Yandex Turkiye.
