CX Evolve Summit: How UAE is using tech to enhance customer experience

With the advent of machine learning and technology, governments around the world are using it to “co-create” cities along with their citizens, said experts at the Khaleej Times CX Evolve Summit in Dubai.

“What governments are doing is that they are involving citizens in decisions in shaping up cities and co-creating solutions,” said Himanshu Malhotra, advisor to the chairman of department of municipalities and transport in Abu Dhabi. “In Moscow and Paris, citizens are being looped into deciding several things like bus routes and setting speed limits. Governments are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to see what people need.”

His comments came at the opening panel discussion at the fourth edition of the CX Evolve Summit, which took place on Thursday. He gave an example of how Abu Dhabi was using artificial intelligence to make the city better.

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“We have inspection vans in Abu Dhabi that look for distortion or city image issues and proactively address them without anyone having to report it or be inconvenienced by it,” he said. “We are using analytics and big data for informed decision-making. We have data around traffic and future population trends that we are using to see where the next neighbourhoods are coming and how roads should look like in these areas.”

Birth certificate registration

One area where the UAE government has been using technology to make life easier for its residents is in issuance of birth certificates. Hassa Said Al Mazrouei, medical director patient experience at Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City explained more.

“We face a lot of challenges while creating the birth certificate,” she said. “It should be a very simple and easy process but parents would face trouble getting all the documents on the system. That is when the Abu Dhabi Department of Health and all of the hospitals across the emirate started integrating into a system. With the click of a button, the parents began to be able to generate the birth certificate. So their happy moments became even happier for them.”

She also gave the example of how the hospital removed a pain point for doctors using technology. “The patients complained that when they were talking, the doctor would be looking at the screen and typing in the details,” she said. “This made them feel disconnected. So now, we use a dictation software which takes down notes as the doctor is speaking so that they can connect better with patients.”

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