BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 11. INMerge Innovation Summit, organized by Azerbaijan's PASHA Holding, has wrapped up in Baku, Trend reports.
The annual summit seeks to light a fire under the region's innovation scene, bridge the gap between startups and investors, and serve as a melting pot for the sharing of ideas and experiences among all parties involved.
This day, the event scheduled speeches of CTO of Amazon Werner Vogels, YouTube Co-Founder Steve Chen, PASHA Holding CEO Jalal Gasimov, Chairman of the Azerbaijani Agency for Innovation and Digital Development Inara Valiyeva, Linda Hill, founder of Paradox Strategies and InnovationForce, Vladimir Pravdivy, former CEO of Avito, Ilya Strebulaev, a professor at Stanford University, and others.
Azerbaijani PASHA Holding's CEO Jalal Gasimov said that lack of innovation and desire to maintain status quo pose major risk for companies.
Gasimov emphasized the criticality of proactive risk management and the necessity of agile adaptation to the dynamic landscape of contemporary conditions.
"When it comes to risky decisions, one of the first questions we discuss is that the greatest risk arises when no action is taken. If you don’t take risks or innovate, that is the biggest risk of all," he explained.
According to him, in the face of rapidly changing technologies, channels, and customer needs, companies must constantly adapt and update their approaches to work.
"If you look at marketing budgets five or 10 years ago, the share of digital marketing was significantly lower. Now this share is growing, and if you don’t change your approaches, you will inevitably fail," he noted.
Moreover, Gasimov indicated that innovations ought to be kept on a tight leash and handled with a steady hand.
"In the future, leaders must possess the ability to manage the chaos that arises from rapid changes, which requires specific skills and abilities necessary for successful adaptation to new conditions," the CEO added.
The chairperson of the board of the Innovation and Digital Development Agency under the Ministry of Transport and Digital Development Inara Valiyeva stressed that work is currently underway in Azerbaijan to join non-governmental organizations (NGO) in the Digital Document Management (RSD) system.
Valiyeva noted that Azerbaijan is strategically advancing towards a streamlined, paperless management paradigm through the implementation of an innovative Digital Document Management System.
“Thanks to the Digital Document Management System, more than 500,000 sheets of paper are saved every month, which allows saving about 2,000 trees per year. More than 1,700 government agencies have already been connected to this system, which has significantly reduced the use of paper and increased the efficiency of document exchange. Work is also underway to join the Digital Document Management (RSD) system for non-governmental organizations,” she said.
The head of analytics and insights at Verizon Ansar Kassim emphasized that artificial intelligence is contributing to the emergence of new industries and professions of the future.
“Artificial intelligence will create numerous new sectors, much like electricity did. This will create numerous jobs. Many jobs you'll do in 10 years don't exist now. My AI job didn't exist ten years ago either. Small AI labs existed then, but not on the same scale as presently. It takes eight years for new jobs to emerge, but this time may shorten,” he noted.
According to him, labor productivity was experiencing a remarkable surge, driven by two transformative innovations - electrification and digital technology.
“Today, artificial intelligence is also helping to increase productivity, and the results of this will be visible soon,” he said.
To note, "INMerge Innovation Summit," organized by PASHA Holding, is designed to contribute to the development of the innovation ecosystem in Azerbaijan by bringing together startups and investors, providing opportunities for cooperation, as well as creating a platform for the exchange of ideas and experience between all participants of the innovation ecosystem.
