Uber Turkey General Manager Neyran Bahadırlı stated that more than 95 percent of taxis in Istanbul are currently actively working on the Uber platform, and said, “We have achieved a very rapid growth momentum, especially in the last 2 years, which has made Turkey one of the fastest growing countries for Uber, and Turkey has become one of Uber’s priority investment countries.”
Covering the fields of economy, finance, digital and technology, with Haber Global and GLOOB as the main media business partners, the “Global Leaders Summit” is being held for the first time this year with the theme of “Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Future”.
At the summit, where business world opinion leaders come together, 100 speakers and 75 sessions are taking place with the participation of leaders and thought leaders from Turkey and the world.
Speaking at the panel titled “CEOs’ Technology and Sustainability Agenda; How Are We Preparing for the Future in Turkey and Globally?” held on the second day of the event, Uber Turkey CEO Neyran Bahadırlı provided information about the company’s work.
Pointing out that Uber is a very good example of digital transformation, Bahadırlı said that the current company value of Uber, a publicly traded company, is 150 billion dollars.
Bahadırlı stated that they are a global technology company that is growing and spreading very quickly in the world, and noted the following:
“When we look at Turkey, Uber has been operating in Turkey for 10 years, and for the last 4 years, due to regulations, we have only been working with vehicles with taxi plates. The number of downloads of our application has approached 8 million on a user basis. We are active in 9 cities in Turkey, primarily Istanbul. Currently, more than 95 percent of taxis in Istanbul are actively working on the Uber platform. We have achieved a very rapid growth momentum, especially in the last 2 years. This has made Turkey one of the fastest growing countries for Uber. Turkey has become one of Uber’s priority investment countries.”
“PRODUCTIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WILL HAVE A DESTRUCTIVE EFFECT”
The panel titled “What Awaits the Sectors Today and Tomorrow?”, where the future of the business world was discussed, featured Amazon Web Services General Manager Burak Aydın, McKinsey & Company Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa and Turkey Leap Leader and Senior Partner Can Kendi and Yapı Kredi Bank Borderless Banking Assistant General Manager Yakup Doğan.
Touching on the importance of productive artificial intelligence, Aydin said that technology is at the forefront of their agenda compared to other issues.
Noting that this was generally the focus of the meetings, Aydın said that they talked about the destructive impact of generative artificial intelligence and how they would manage this destructive impact.
Aydin said, “Because it will be demolished and rebuilt, it will grow bigger, it will bring more economic value. According to McKinsey research, productive artificial intelligence will bring 2.6-4.4 trillion dollars of growth to the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while PwC research says that this will increase to 17 trillion dollars by 2030. Therefore, there is a very serious task. But here, it is necessary to take into consideration that this technology is not new. Artificial intelligence has been known since the 1950s. With the increase in processor power and the abundance of data, productive artificial intelligence begins to create value in our lives and will continue to increase. ChatGPT currently works with 1.7 trillion parameters, the previous version was 150 billion, so it is increasing and we have just started. In this context, productive artificial intelligence will add value to our lives in many ways.”
Yakup Doğan, Yapı Kredi Bank’s Deputy General Manager Responsible for Unlimited Banking, stated that while they used to manage digital transformation, as banks, they made their own platforms, technologies and products innovative in the best way possible and offered them to their customers, and continued as follows:
“Now, especially in the last 2 years, a new concept called service banking has emerged in the banking sector. In very simple terms, if any brand, company or institution has a certain customer base, it can immediately offer banking services to them. Therefore, you are evolving towards the concept of banking brands and here dozens, hundreds of ideas are formed and there are many projects that we are currently working on, but we need to test these ideas very quickly and decide which one stands out more quickly so that we can differentiate ourselves from the competition.”
McKinsey & Company Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa and Turkey Leap Leader and Senior Partner Can Kendi also emphasized the issue of growth, stating that one of the most important issues for leaders in the business world is how to achieve growth during times of economic uncertainty.
Kendi said, “Managing growth and looking for growth in the right places is very critical. There is a saying here that I always say for leaders and that I like. I have used it a lot but I will use it again. We say that a good leader should have both a microscope and a telescope.”
