ANDICOM 2020: influential players in the technology industry focused on Latin America's digital transformation

Academics, high-ranking public servants, entrepreneurs from different sectors of the economy and innovative companies in the technology sector gathered at ANDICOM 2020. This union of influential actors had a single objective: to continue making technology the best ally of humanity.

The 35th edition of the International Congress on Information and Communication Technologies, which took place virtually on September 2 and 3, was attended by more than 140 prestigious speakers and more than 700 organizations. 

At ANDICOM 2020, government representatives reaffirmed their commitment to make Colombia the Silicon Valley of Latin America. Their strategy is comprehensive, as they seek to bring connectivity to all regions of the country, train different generations in new technologies and promote the digital transformation of the private and public sector. This, through strategic investment, multi-sector programs, public policies and regulations that support startups that, like nuvu, are working to provide technological solutions with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life of citizens. 

Disruptive technologies for digital, preventive and anticipatory governance

Connectivity is equity. Germán Camilo Rueda, Vice Minister of Digital Economy of the MinTic, highlighted one of the mottos of the current administration: digital transformation with meaning. This means using technology as a source of equality and legality, making life easier for citizens, public officials, entrepreneurs and other actors in society. 

One of the axes on which the government is working lies in the intelligent use of data to improve the way in which public services are provided. Nuvu, a strategic partner of Amazon Web Services, participated in this discussion with its CEO, Andrés Barrantes, and its CTO, Luis Fernando Ortega, explaining how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and analytics contribute to achieve this goal. 

Andrés Barrantes, in the session entitled "Anticipatory Government: Artificial Intelligence applied to citizen services", demonstrated how technology can contribute to the creation of a preventive government that anticipates social problems through the use of data.

According to Andrés Barrantes, descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics are integrated to address different social problems such as theft, human trafficking, tax evasion, child abuse prevention, traffic accidents, among others. Nuvu, a strategic ally of Amazon Web Services, developed an application to prevent crime in intermediate cities. Thanks to this, the government obtained results in terms of predictive generation of information one day in advance within a radius of 200 meters. 

Luis Fernando Ortega's session, entitled "COVID-19 as an accelerator: Integration of Artificial Intelligence in the healthcare sector", demonstrated how nuvu has used AI to save lives at this juncture and how it can continue to do so once the pandemic has been overcome. Platforms focused on providing data to the health sector on the most vulnerable patients, predictive models on citizens at higher risk of infection, collection of medical information and algorithms that determine when a person is at risk of acquiring a disease, contribute to the reduction of costs in the health sector and the reduction of diseases in the population. 

"Models must be local". Andrés Barrantes.

Finally, it is worth highlighting a reflection of nuvo's CEO: The models to develop GovTech platforms that make the Government an anticipatory and intelligent one must be local. In Colombia we have disruptive companies and human talent with knowledge about the indigenous characteristics of our country. This aspect allows us to create real solutions for the government and citizens. 

The final invitation is for us, the citizens, to transform ourselves first to adopt technological solutions as allies that make our lives easier and boost the economic growth of the country and the region. Colombia is digitally transformed.