Asad Makki, Customer Advisory Manager at SAS, states that their AI and analytics leadership empowers industries with data-driven solutions. He points to their work in cloud-based digital transformation, ethical AI, and strategic partnerships, as evidenced by their LEAP showcase.
SAS has been a leader in advanced analytics and AI. How is SAS leveraging AI and data analytics to drive innovation and industries like finance, healthcare and insurance?
SAS’s longstanding leadership in analytics is clearly demonstrated by its consistent recognition in major industry analyst reports, including Gartner’s Data Science and Machine Learning Magic Quadrant, Forrester’s AI Machine Learning Platform Wave, and IDC’s Machine Operations and Decision Platforms. This consistent categorization as a leader, spanning nine years in Gartner’s report alone, underscores SAS’s deep industry expertise and ability to deliver tangible, real-world value. SAS provides a comprehensive, end-to-end analytics platform that supports the entire analytics lifecycle, catering to a diverse range of industries.
In the financial services sector, SAS empowers customers with AI-driven fraud detection, risk management, personalized customer experiences, and customer intelligence, enabling them to meet various strategic objectives. In healthcare, advanced analytics are employed for predictive modeling of chronic diseases, genome research, and improving patient outcomes.
SAS also works extensively with over 1,600 government entities globally, including ministries and organizations like MOF, addressing critical challenges such as flood management through the analysis of flood, weather, sensor, and geospatial data. Additionally, SAS utilizes 3D computer vision models and 3D mapping for park and litter management, contributing to safer and cleaner public spaces. With solutions spanning smart cities and social services, SAS’s analytics-driven DNA ensures a robust, end-to-end platform capable of supporting any industry’s needs.
Many organizations are undergoing digital transformation and how is SAS supporting businesses and integrating cloud-based analytics and real time data processing to enhance decision making?
Data is the foundation of any successful digital transformation, and SAS provides an AI-powered platform designed to leverage this data to meet specific objectives. This platform is cloud-agnostic and cloud-native, allowing organizations to deploy it across diverse environments, including on-premises, cloud, multi-cloud, and hybrid setups. Recognizing that many sectors, particularly government and telecommunications, generate vast amounts of data, SAS offers a robust platform for real-time data processing, advanced analytics, and intelligent decision-making. This enables customers to instantly analyze data, identify patterns, and make informed decisions in real time. Beyond data processing and analytics, SAS provides a comprehensive end-to-end platform that covers every aspect of the model lifecycle. Furthermore, SAS acknowledges that implementing AI requires organizational change, and therefore, equips customers with the necessary skills to embed AI into their processes. Through a collaborative platform, SAS facilitates the adoption of AI into daily routines, enhancing agility and driving organizations towards their strategic goals.
With AI playing a critical role in business and society, how SAS ensuring responsible and ethical AI deployment, particularly in highly regulated industries.
The integration of AI into organizational processes, particularly amidst the rapid advancements exemplified by GPT and related technologies, has become a central point of discussion. A key challenge lies in balancing the desire to adopt AI with the imperative to ensure data security and privacy. Many organizations are eager to leverage AI but grapple with the complexities of security and governance. SAS addresses this concern through a responsible and ethical approach, underpinned by a trustworthy AI initiative. This initiative provides features across the analytical lifecycle, including bias detection, explainability, governance, and comprehensive model operations, ensuring auditability for regulatory compliance and transparency of AI usage. This becomes particularly crucial when deploying AI models for various organizational objectives, which often necessitate the use of sensitive data, such as customer information or proprietary organizational data. SAS offers a solution through its data maker capability, which enables the generation of statistically accurate synthetic data, effectively mitigating data sensitivity. This allows organizations to train models and derive decision-making outcomes without compromising the security of real data.
Can you share insights on any recent strategic partnerships in KSA?
SAS is actively engaged in numerous partnerships, with a particularly strong collaboration with Microsoft on a global scale. This enterprise-level partnership focuses on AI within Microsoft’s cloud environment. By leveraging Microsoft’s hosted managed services, organizations can utilize SAS analytics without the burden of extensive IT overhead or the need for specialized skills, such as Kubernetes cluster administration. SAS provides a comprehensive infrastructure, platform, and solution on Azure, enabling customers to seamlessly adopt and utilize AI, thereby accelerating their innovation initiatives.
What did you showcase at Leap this year?
At LEAP, we presented a diverse portfolio of industry-specific solutions. Our exhibit featured cutting-edge smart city technologies, robust asset management tools for the oil and gas sector, and advanced banking solutions. These banking tools focused on enhancing customer experiences through analytics and personalization, while ensuring regulatory compliance, demonstrating our broad industry reach.
