Doha, Qatar: Qatar is one of the leading countries in technological transformation and investment in digital innovation as the government adopts an ambitious digital strategy aimed at enhancing the digital economy.

Artificial intelligence and the Internet of all things are powering the fourth industrial revolution and its huge gains in productivity, efficiency and flexibility. The fifth industrial revolution, or Industry 5.0, will incorporate sustainability and social responsibility to help create a human and environment centered transformation discussed officials and experts in a panel session entitled ‘Industry 5.0: The Business and Investment Opportunity’ held on the sidelines of Qatar Economic Forum (QEF), Powered by Bloomberg.

Assistant Undersecretary of Digital Industry Affairs, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), H E Reem Mohammed Al Mansoori shared the most critical components of Industry 5.0 that will drive digital society development in Qatar and highlighted the policies for industry 5.0.

The first policy “we have to look into the AI and data. The data is gathered everywhere, the AI modules and systems. We need policies which will support us to have the right ethical AI modules and even to collect the data and to protect everyone’s data to ensure that we are preparing our AI modules to operate on its best. We need all potential and possible data, so the data is our future,” she said.

The Ministry has put a great focus for Industry 5.0 by launching the Digital Agenda Strategy for Qatar, “we are setting all the best options and road map for utilising the power of technology for the future of Qatar and putting the country on the international map. Also we are working currently on a national data management. This is one of the key things, we need to have for 5.0, we are in a stage of developing the law, the framework and even the management road map for that,” she added.

Al Mansoori underscored that the second important part in the policy is “we need to up skill and reskill the human capital in Qatar. All the skills that we have, it’s really great, we have a very advanced workforce. We need to be ready for 5.0, the transition is happening so fast, so we need to ensure that we are upskilling and reskilling the human capital every 18 months. We need to look and revise again our digital skills”

The third important part is that there will be a massive need of the compute power, so having machines and processor to handle this massive data. She said, “We need this supercomputers and this superpower and definitely Qatar did really work very well in paving the way for 5.0 by having the cloud capacity. There is a big intention towards purchasing the mass power processor and even we need to look into our investment model in Qatar, where the need on the coming 18 months for the computer power will multiply 10 times. The Ministry is focusing to make sure that we are the first adapter into the 5.0.”

 “We need to be innovative, we need to be the pioneer. We are taking the lead, and are one of the first countries who launched their AI strategy and is working on the framework, policies and ethics.”

Citing the announcement of one of the most innovative projects for AI at the QEF 2024 opening address, she noted that Qatar is taking the lead in this like few countries. When we look around we cannot see many countries yet announce their strategies or their framework, but Qatar is really taking the lead, so we are innovative and brave enough to go ahead.

For his part Mohammed Al Sada, Assistant Professor, Qatar University; Director, KINDI Computing Research Center said, There is a paradigm shift that we are witnessing in industry 5.0, but these are the main aspects of this industry 5.0 concepts and it’s currently taking shape.

However, there are a lot of uncertainties right now regarding Industry 5.0 because it’s currently developing.

“We are moving away from using technology as tools, but rather now we are using them as partners. So the relationship is becoming more of we are collaborating with systems. We are integrating these systems to use them for the greater good, for business or for daily life applications,” he added. 

Rick Tallant, Executive Vice President GTL & Managing Director, Qatar Shell said, Industry 5.0 is taking technology and solving some of the biggest problems “we faced in generations and one of them is around how do we manage the energy transition both environmentally sustainably.”

“At Shell we think we have an important part to play, both in providing energy for today and doing it sustainably, but also creating the new energy system of the future that’s much lower carbon and

technology plays a big part of that,” he added.

Khalid Mohamed Al Kubaisi, CEO, Malomatia discussed about the future and challenges of Industry 5.0 and technology