Türkiye E-Commerce Week discusses AI, investments

​​​​​​ISTANBUL

Türkiye E-Commerce Week, starting Friday in Istanbul, is featuring sessions to handle issues from new technologies, investments and hot topics related to the sector under the theme “Future-Commerce.”.

The two-day event is organized by the Trade Ministry, the Electronic Commerce Operators Association (ETID) and the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB). Anadolu is serving as the event’s global communication partner.

The program features panels, masterclasses, workshops, exhibitions, experience zones, startup-to-business meetings and networking sessions to shape Türkiye’s digital commerce vision by connecting industry professionals, investors, academics, public officials and consumers.

Madhu Kannan, chief business officer at Uber, said the company has been in Türkiye for around 10 years, and now around 45,000 taxis are registered on the Uber platform in the country, with 95% in Istanbul.

Referring to Uber's $200 million investment plan in Türkiye last week, Kannan stated that the technology center they will establish is an indicator of Türkiye's technologically advanced production and the confidence with which young people's talents are developing.

Uber announced last month that it would establish a technology hub in Istanbul, investing $200 million in the next five years.

AI

Serhat Dolaz, the head of the Payment and Electronic Money Institutions Association of Türkiye, discussed risk areas such as fraud prevention, data security and algorithmic biases, and evaluated the opportunities and limitations of artificial intelligence, or AI.

Dolaz stated that logistics is an essential component of e-commerce and payment and fintech are also essential, adding that fintech organizations are one of the biggest catalysts in the transformation of commerce to e-commerce.

"It's simply not possible to conduct business at this speed with traditional financial instruments. Finance needed to become much more agile with technology,” he said. "The organizations that emerged from this need are truly at the center of e-commerce in many different areas in our country today."

Zafer Kucuksabanoglu, the chair of the Artificial Intelligence Policies Association (AIPA), said there is a major interest in AI, noting that there are huge differences between the AI discussed in developed countries and the AI discussed in Türkiye.

"Some countries, in particular, have actually put AI on their main agenda. We are actually trying to do the same. That's why these kinds of events are very, very valuable," he said.

Behcet Ugur Toreyin, a professor from Istanbul Technical University’s AI and data engineering department, said concepts such as machine learning and data mining are actually the scientific foundations that validate, implement and operate AI technology.

He stated that artificial learning algorithms are based on statistical analysis, and noted that current AI technology and machine learning do not work like human intelligence, but reveal relationships from data statistically.