These were four days to remember. LEAP 2024, a world-class tech event held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from March 4 to 7, 2024, provided Empeiria with a fantastic platform to showcase its vision of the Data of the Future.
Empeiria’s team, led by the company’s Founder & CEO, Marcin Parafianwicz, engaged in over 100 meetings with industry peers, experts, and stakeholders from around the globe. Against the backdrop of these discussions, five key takeaways emerged, offering insights into the direction of technological progress and valuable lessons for the future.
1. Saudi Arabia is the Centre of Innovation
As the center of technological progress gradually shifts towards the Middle East, Riyadh emerges as a hub of innovation, attracting innovators, visionaries, and investors from around the globe. “The center of technology is slowly but surely moving to the Middle East and Riyadh,” said Marcin Parafianowicz. “The amount of investment and transformational power of Vision 2030 is remarkable. And the stakeholders recognize the importance of technology as the central point in that transformation,” he added. LEAP, with its impressive range of insightful panels, tech showcases, and meaningful discussions, served as evidence of Saudi Arabia’s rapidly increasing potential. The confluence of visionary leadership and substantial investment underscores Riyadh’s openness to innovation and tech-driven growth.
2. Verifiable Data Solves Real-Life Problems
Empeiria welcomed countless business leaders, tech enthusiasts, and experts to our stand at LEAP. What did most of them have in common? They were looking for solutions to real-life problems and could see the potential of Verifiable Data.
From healthcare to finance, education to supply chain management, we pinpointed dozens of use cases for Empeiria’s End-to-End Verifiable Data Infrastructure (EVDI) throughout our LEAP interactions. “Empeiria has this innovative solution, a deep tech that will facilitate data transactions by offering an infrastructure that helps to exchange data safely and securely,” said Faris Alem from the Space and Technology Commission (CST), “This is a very interesting opportunity, and in the next few years, it will help us to transform our way of transacting data digitally,” he added.
3. There’s Business Value in Data Privacy
Data privacy plays a crucial role in building trust and creating value. Don’t take our word for it. Instead, listen to Harvey Jang, VP Chief Privacy Officer at CISCO. During a LEAP panel talk on the role of privacy in emerging tech, Jang urged companies to go beyond mere privacy regulations’ compliance. “There’s a strong return on investment in Privacy. It’s more than compliance; it’s more than just checking the box. There are so many aspects of privacy that enable trust with the customer, and it enables business value.” he said.
Solid data backs up this claim. According to the Cisco 2024 Data Privacy Benchmark Study, privacy programs showcase a strong return on investment, averaging 160% ROI and reaching 500%.
Here at Empeiria we use advanced blockchain technology and cryptography to embed trust in our End-to-End Verifiable Data Infrastructure (EVDI) because, as Dr. Anna Zeiter, VA Chief Privacy Officer & Associate General Counsel of Privacy, Data, and AI at eBay, aptly stated “Trust is the key issue. […] Compliance and trust go hand in hand.”
4. AI Success Depends on Data Quality
“Data is the Holy Grail of everything.” This quote from Aku Srikanth, the Head of AI Evangelism at Juniper Networks, during her LEAP talk on the future of AI, resonates with us deeply.
As AI models are constantly trained and developed, it becomes increasingly apparent that the success of AI depends upon the quality and integrity of its data sources. In this context, decentralized data emerges as the foundation of increased transparency and reliability and reduced bias of AI models. “We live in an app-centric world where data is not verifiable. This causes inefficiencies and bias in AI systems,” says Empeiria CEO. “Verifiable data brings transparency to AI model training, reducing risks of data from unknown sources and minimizing security risks by avoiding data concentration in silos,” he concludes.
5. Streamlined Deployment Drives Adoption
Our countless LEAP interactions with industry leaders show a clear appetite for streamlined, user-friendly technologies. Companies are willing to invest in convenience, especially in today’s complex and rapidly changing world, where, according to Parafianowicz, it takes at least a few weeks to deploy any type of identity infrastructure.
Empeiria overcomes this adoption barrier by providing a one-click deployment solution for its End-to-End Verifiable Data Infrastructure (EVDI). In fact, in the time it took you to read this text, you would have been able to set up a foundation for a decentralized data ecosystem using our simple deployment tool.
We’re grateful for the invitation to LEAP 2024 and the opportunity to engage with top-tier experts, industry leaders, and stakeholders. This one-of-a-kind event demonstrated the importance of collaboration, innovation, and shared vision in shaping the future of technology.