Adel speaks with Kaveh Vessali about the intersection between data and public policy and the many exciting insights he’s gained from his role delivering smart cities and data transformation projects within the public sector in the middle east.
Key Takeaways
When we look at the state of a lot of tech stacks today, they are more accessible, I might say in some cases easier to use, they're also more powerful. But what it means is that people in a broader range of backgrounds can actually leverage those skills, because you don't need a deep specialization in order to be able to use data skills using the example marketing we're talking about before. Almost 10% of the jobs that asked for data science skills, not just data skills, but data science skills, are in marketing.
To transform the public sector—focus on finding champions: The biggest piece of driving data transformation projects in the public sector, is by working with audacious leaders who champion using data and AI in government agencies. If you work with them to get a quick win, the roadmap becomes easier to implement over time.
The most important skill is data-driven decision making: While technical skills are important, the most important data skill for policy makers, government workers, and public officials, is data-informed decision making and the ability to make use of data in day to day work.
Key Quotes
The hardest part of technology is always the people. We are always ahead of the game in terms of the tools we have available to us compared to what people can absorb.
