With the advent of machine learning and technology, governments around the world are using it to “co-create” cities along with their citizens, said experts at the Khaleej Times CX Evolve Summit in Dubai.
“What governments are doing is that they are involving citizens in decisions in shaping up cities and co-creating solutions,” said Himanshu Malhotra, advisor to the chairman of department of municipalities and transport in Abu Dhabi. “In Moscow and Paris, citizens are being looped into deciding several things like bus routes and setting speed limits. Governments are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to see what people need.”
His comments came at the opening panel discussion at the fourth edition of the CX Evolve Summit, which took place on Thursday. He gave an example of how Abu Dhabi was using artificial intelligence to make the city better.
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“We have inspection vans in Abu Dhabi that look for distortion or city image issues and proactively address them without anyone having to report it or be inconvenienced by it,” he said. “We are using analytics and big data for informed decision-making. We have data around traffic and future population trends that we are using to see where the next neighbourhoods are coming and how roads should look like in these areas.”
Birth certificate registration
One area where the UAE government has been using technology to make life easier for its residents is in issuance of birth certificates. Hassa Said Al Mazrouei, medical director patient experience at Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City explained more.
“We face a lot of challenges while creating the birth certificate,” she said. “It should be a very simple and easy process but parents would face trouble getting all the documents on the system. That is when the Abu Dhabi Department of Health and all of the hospitals across the emirate started integrating into a system. With the click of a button, the parents began to be able to generate the birth certificate. So their happy moments became even happier for them.”
She also gave the example of how the hospital removed a pain point for doctors using technology. “The patients complained that when they were talking, the doctor would be looking at the screen and typing in the details,” she said. “This made them feel disconnected. So now, we use a dictation software which takes down notes as the doctor is speaking so that they can connect better with patients.”
The CX Evolve Summit brought together experts from the field of customer service to discuss how to deliver value beyond personalisation while safeguarding privacy and data integrity. “It was an outstanding event that truly highlighted the importance of evolving consumer-brand relationships in today’s dynamic market,” said Andreas Markdalen, Global Chief Creative Officer at frog. “As Middle Eastern brands adapt to shifting consumer mindsets, we’re excited to continue cocreating seamless experiences that resonate deeply with people.”
The right environment
During his panel discussion, Humaid Hassan Salem Alshamsi, expert in customer experience and government excellence praised the UAE government for creating the right environment for adopting AI.
“As the government, we need to be more efficient,” he said. “We need to utilise technology and partner with the private sector because customer expectations from us is very high. We have customer councils to listen to their experience and learn from it. We also have a UX lab where anyone who creates a new app can go and test it. It is important for the UAE government that we work together to enhance the human experience.”
He gave the example of UAE Pass. “All the government services are using it to make the customer experience better,” he said. “The private sector also has started using it. It is a prime example of how we utilise data to personalise the experience of UAE residents.”