Co-chair of the Turkish Artificial Intelligence Member Platform and Istanbul Technical University Data Science and Analytics Department Professor
Aegean Young Businessmen Association (EGİAD) and Aegean Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (ESİAD) jointly organized the Artificial Intelligence Summit at İzQ Innovation Center and discussed the current state of these technologies in the world and Türkiye's roadmaps.
In the research results of the events regarding the economic impacts of artificial intelligence in Türkiye at the summit, Prof.
Çakır stated that as a result of the study, if artificial intelligence finds a wide area of use, it could contribute 10 percent to Türkiye's gross controlled product in 5 years, and noted that the structure of artificial intelligence-supported automation was outlined.
Çakır, who shared the details of the data about the people of the artificial intelligence, said:
“Approximately 31 million of the 17 million employees in Türkiye, or 55 percent, will be directly affected by artificial intelligence and all jobs that can be satisfied with it. By being affected, we mean either they will move to a better place or they will regress. This is a group between the ages of 30 and 55. Depending on the job we do, we will be able to set aside 4 percent. This is equivalent to 800-900 thousand. The average number of jobs lost and established in Türkiye is equivalent to 1 million. In other words, with the current mobility, there should not be a job loss that would pose a great risk anyway.
"The 41 percent of workers, or about 10 million, who will not be directly affected in the near future. For example, while we expect a big loss in jobs like nursing, we are noticing a significant technological change in jobs like office assistants, data analysts and software engineers."
Çakır stated that if the 17 million people in Türkiye do not receive support from the artificial intelligence provided, their jobs will decline, 6 million of which are women and 11 million of which are men, and conveyed that people in this field should learn new technologies as soon as possible and ensure that new facilities are converted correctly.
Çakır stated that in the AI-supported economy, no change is expected in operation due to new jobs that will replace jobs that will close due to automation, and he worked by predicting that the transition processes will progress and allow employees time to adapt to new tasks and spend new skills.
– Advice to young people to ‘give proper weight to practice’
Stating that Türkiye has a strong artificial intelligence system environment, but that it needs to increase the breakthroughs and digital infrastructure investments, Çakır pointed out that increasing the skills of young people is of critical importance.
Çakır, who conveyed the weight distribution to the location dimension in learning artificial intelligence technologies, continued the headings as follows:
“There is one thing for artificial intelligence technology; every 50 years this technology science has reached a certain maturity. After that, it is always found in applications. The job market or applications. Young people either need to continue their education and carry them to new activities with new techniques that they are not. Or there is work, there are 1-2 years of experience among those stored.
"I think the part that needs to be done is to create an initiative in a suitable way after the production is experienced and the products offered are created within 1-2 years. There are approximately 450 investment funds in Türkiye regarding this. In fact, our issue is not money, but the gathering of young people who will really dedicate themselves to this work, dedicate time and run for it."
Prof. Dr. Çakır stated that the departments focusing on artificial intelligence education in Türkiye have expanded this year with their first graduates, nearly 2 departments have been opened in the last 50 years, and the ecosystem will be revitalized with the first graduates of these departments within 3 years.
Çakır, who pointed out that cities also have their own equipment in terms of artificial intelligence, added that he focused on the areas where artificial intelligence strategies can focus, for example, Istanbul's finance and business world, Ankara's defense, and Izmir's health technologies and logistics.
Preparations for an artificial intelligence ecosystem in Izmir
EGİAD President Kaan Özhelvacı also stated that Türkiye is lagging behind in Artificial Intelligence and said, “As young people, we have the potential to create an Artificial Intelligence ecosystem in İzmir. Our work to establish an Artificial Intelligence Center here continues. We aim for İzmir to be the leader in Artificial Intelligence in the Mediterranean basin.”
ESİAD President Sibel Zorlu stated that Artificial Intelligence opened up an opportunity perspective to Turkish markets and that she supported the studies to examine this, “There is a vision in İzmir regarding the formation of an ecosystem. We see these visions from the public to the private sector, from universities to companies. We see these steps being taken.”
