Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Speaking at the meeting, TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that artificial intelligence will quickly transform life, economy and ways of doing business, adding, “It will be the private sector and SMEs that will drive this transformation. In the industrial revolution, manufacturing evolved from body strength to machine power. Now machine power will be transformed into brain power, and machine, robot and human interaction will result in a skilled workforce.”

Emphasizing that data is now the most important source of wealth in the world, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “As both individuals and companies and institutions, we produce a lot of data. Today, you actually produce data in every product you buy online, every link you click on, every photo you like. This data is so large that it is very difficult for a person to analyze it alone in classical ways. That's what AI helps to understand, analyze, and draw conclusions and lead the way. In summary, AI provides its power from data, the more data there is, the better AI works.”

Noting that artificial intelligence has started to be used in consumer behaviors, medicine, law and education today, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that SMEs and enterprises are now using artificial intelligence to create value.

Stating that Turkey should increase the number of young people in this field, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “In this way, we will both grow the artificial intelligence ecosystem and make companies and institutions benefit more from the possibilities of artificial intelligence. There are two ways we can choose here: Either we will lead the transformation of artificial intelligence, or we will follow this transformation from afar. We don't have the option of not integrating with artificial intelligence. Any system that is not integrated with artificial intelligence will surely lose in this way. Target's moving too fast. We don't have the option of developing technology in this regard and watching from afar. We must follow this technology very closely and lead the transformation of artificial intelligence.”

Reminding that as TOBB and the Chamber-Exchange community, they have been aware of the importance of artificial intelligence for a long time, TOBB President said, “We know that we will need more young people specializing in artificial intelligence in this age and in the near future. That is why we first established the undergraduate department of Artificial Intelligence Engineering in Turkey in 2019 within TOBB University of Economics and Technology, which is the university of the Turkish business world. After this first, which we set an example for the Turkish higher education system, artificial intelligence engineering departments were opened in 3 other universities outside TOBB ETU today. In undergraduate education, we are very interested in raising our young people with other disciplines related to artificial intelligence focused on artificial intelligence. Because one of our most important tasks is to improve the skill set of the employment provided by our members, namely human capital.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that they provide vocational trainings to employees and young people who want to enter the employment market. We will lead the transformation of artificial intelligence. Because that's what the age we're in now requires. The training programs within the scope of this project will be implemented in two ways in the form of technical-oriented and awareness-raising trainings.

In technical-oriented trainings, high school, vocational high school and university students will be gradually given “Introduction to Python” and “Introduction to Machine Learning” courses, which will ensure that they are introduction to basic artificial intelligence applications. In trainings aimed at raising awareness, we will provide artificial intelligence and robotic process automation technologies trainings to entrepreneurs, companies, SMEs, faculty members and high school and vocational high school teachers.

With trainings and webinars to be organized with it, we aim to raise awareness for participants about these technologies and how they can integrate them into their field. Basically, we aim to increase qualified man power and contribute to the artificial intelligence ecosystem with the trainings we will provide within the scope of the project. In this context, we plan to provide artificial intelligence trainings to 50,000 people. Moreover, our young people who want to participate in all these trainings will be able to benefit from this opportunity free of charge. Our young people who successfully complete the training will receive certificates from TOBB, TOBB University of Economics and Technology and Global AI Hub.

Here we especially expect the intense participation of women. In recent years, as TOBB and Turkcell, we have given mobile application and code writing trainings to women within the scope of The Future Writers Project. At this point today, we say it's time to see women lead in artificial intelligence as well. I would like to thank Global AI Hub and its CEO Fuat Beşer and his team for their cooperation. I especially invite all industry stakeholders, company representatives, professionals, academics, students, especially women, to this great organization that will be attended by the entire artificial intelligence ecosystem.”