The areas of investments include generation of data and platforms for automation

by ASILA JALIL/ pic by ARIF KARTONO

ADA, which is a part of Axiata Group Bhd, has envisioned to invest RM120 million in the next two years into big data platforms and machine learning models as part of its expansion efforts in the region.

ADA CEO Srinivas Gattamneni said the amount is on top of the RM60 million investment which the company had committed on automation platform and data science over the last couple of years.

“This investment is going on big data platforms. We are going on automation platforms, so we are also going a lot into machine learning models that can take data and convert into insight. Like I said, knowledge and wisdom for our clients,” he told reporters after the launch of the ADA Centre of Excellence in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

He said the RM120 million will be spent in stages and the areas of investment include aggregating more consumer data to obtain a holistic view and better understanding of them.

A lot of investments will be going into the generation of data and its implementation which requires platforms for automation and for decision making.

Gattamneni said the company is currently serving over 500 brands and among the industries are telecommunications, banking and automotive.

ADA is currently present in all Asean countries except Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.

He said the company might enter Vietnam through an acquisition by mid-2020 and is still studying the market potential and level of digitalisation in Myanmar before approaching the market.

ADA, however, has no plan to expand into Laos, but it is keener on going deeper into the current market it is in.

ADA also unveiled a suite of Retail Business Insights Dashboards (Retail BIDs) which will allow businesses to precisely target consumers based on their behaviour.

The ADA Centre of Excellence now carries over 280 million unique consumer profiles and offer services that cut across the creative, advertising and marketing spectrum.

“While traditional agencies have relied heavily on creative ideation or deep media planning, times are changing fast.

“As we approach 2020, more businesses are starting to understand the importance of funnelling their creative ideas, but through the right channels.

“To achieve this, we ensure our marketing strategies are built on reliable data-driven insights,” Gattameni said.

The Retail BIDs are designed to assist the automotive, mall and petrol industries in driving marketing and sales strategies to the right customers by re-shaping their digital strategies.

Meanwhile, Minister of Communications and Multimedia Gobind Singh Deo said he is fascinated by how artificial intelligence (AI) has an impact on almost everything today.

He said that from the government’s perspective, it is about finding ways on how to regulate AI.

“Because it is moving so fast and if you don’t regulate it, it takes over the world and then you would have something that is in charge of the world, but it’s something you can’t regulate.

“So, that is something to me that needs to be given a lot of thought,” he said in a “Fireside Chat” segment after officiating the event.

Gobind added that everyone has a role to play in ensuring that the country is ready for the future.

“We don’t have the luxury to say, ‘let’s look at our neighbours and see what we can learn’. We really have to lead,” he added.