In January, the MVP blog is looking ahead at what’s to come across the tech world in 2022.
As an IT regional community leader, Azure MVP Ahmed Bahaa Farid wants to enlighten people with opportunities and challenges in the world of business 4.0.
“My ‘Azure AI for Everyone’ initiative implements this belief,” Ahmed says. “Using AI and cloud computing have become essential business skills in every career. In the next 5-7 years, AI and cloud computing skills will be as essential as sending a business email.”
Seeking to help others in his home country of Egypt, Ahmed’s ‘Azure AI for Everyone’ initiative provides scientific and technical skills to professionals who want to be able to utilize Azure AI in their field of expertise. Moreover, the program counts a particular focus on providing professional postgraduate-educated women in the Cairo and rural Upper Egypt regions with access to the technology.
“This initiative's main objective is to allow women to be key role players in the AI wave in Egypt, whatever their specialty is!”
Whether you are a professional working in one of the engineering fields, IT, medicine, pharma, biotechnology, arts and design, languages, business, and even mass communication, Ahmed’s dream is for you to be able to utilize this technology in your field.
“Microsoft had honored me with being a fifteen-year MVP and an eleven-year RD. I find myself obligated to always plan for the favor of Microsoft products against their competitors. It is critical to note that some of the Microsoft competitors (American and non-American) have motivated academic institutions to open their doors to take these competitors' training and certify their staff free of charge,” Ahmed says.
So far, the media response to this initiative has been favorable, with coverage of the initiative appearing on MBC Channel (the most viewed channel in Arab World), Egypt’s Channel 1, the leading national TV channel, the Watan Rakamy TV Program (one of the most viewed IT programs in Egypt), and in Al-Watan newspaper (one of the top 2 non-governmental newspapers in the country).
Azure AI For Everyone has trained a total of 492 professionals and that number is increasing.
“Covid-19 was a matter of destruction for people's career life. We met many talented people who are highly skilled in their field; however, they got laid off or had income cuts,” Ahmed says.
“One of the biggest motivations for this initiative was to help talented people from many specialties to excel in their careers with unique industry skills of AI, cloud computing, big data, and other digital transformation technologies,” he adds.
By Nick Kipley
