A trailblazer in bringing Cognitive Computing to enterprises and organisations in Việt Nam through its partnership with IBM, Five9 has been investing heavily in training, both domestically and overseas. Returning from an IBM Design Thinking Workshop in London recently, Five9 chairman Nguyễn Trọng Huấn spoke to the press about the company’s strategy for Cognitive Computing training and application in Việt Nam.

This is a technology that is not just new to Việt Nam but the world over. Can you tell us about the four months of Five9’s partnership with IBM?

Understanding that human resources pose the greatest challenge in introducing this new technology to Việt Nam, and given that artificial intelligence and big data technologies are still very new even in advanced countries, we targeted training at the outset as a core activity component that we need to fast-track and concentrate our efforts on.

Only four months after signing the deal, Five9 has been working closely with IBM and other business partners to deliver many advanced training opportunities on the Bluemix system and Watson API for faculty members of colleges participating in the twinning program, and professionals from member companies in the partnership, with strong support from IBM senior experts from the US.

Furthermore, we have been holding major workshops on cognitive computing training and practice for technology students from eight different universities and institutes in Hà Nội.

In addition to training, we have also pressed ahead with education to promote use of artificial intelligence in healthcare through workshops we jointly held with local health organisations and regulatory authorities.

Five9 is reportedly the first Vietnamese firm to attend the IBM Design Thinking Workshop in London that gathered the world top professionals in the Cognitive Computing and Finance fields. Can you tell us something about this training course?

Indeed, Five9 was the first Vietnamese company to participate in this training opportunity and we have received support from IBM’s top finance and technology experts in the search for our own solutions.

The IBM Design Thinking Workshop is a training program on problem-solving, understanding users and markets, and exploring new ideas, which IBM designed specifically for Five9 and the Vietnamese market.

Participants in the training were a collection of business stakeholders, customers and technology practitioners, among others, who sat down and discussed every detail relating to issues of interest and objectives, as well as approaches and ways to solve problems and put together solutions that best fit Việt Nam.

What problems did Five9 take to this Design Thinking Workshop (DTW) to find an answer for?

One particular problem statement that we brought to IBM Design Thinking Workshop this time is Credit Score using social network information. Credit scoring is a very potential yet difficult area in Banking and Finance industry. This is also a very risky area if we don’t have stable and reliable solutions for it. Social network data, artificial intelligence open source and bold ideas are not enough. To prepare for the DTW in London, Five9 spent 3 months gathering information and data to be ready.

We have received tremendous and professional support from IBM and world class financial experts during the workshop. We’re now focusing on deploying and testing the services to officially offer to clients in October, 2017.

I think that solving these problems will benefit a large part of the population, especially in the developing world, and allow middle-income countries, including Vietnam, access microcredit from banks and other financial institutions quickly, efficiently and at reasonable costs.

Obviously, cognitive computing presents a major opportunity for countries like Việt Nam as they seek breakthroughs in various sectors. Can you shed light on Five9’s strategy to bring this to use in real life?

In the foreseeable future, Five9 will continue to build up our training base to create a quality Vietnamese workforce specializing in cognitive computing. We plan to adop DTW model firstly to our ecosystem of products to create cohension and mutual support among them. Later, we may carry this DTW model to assist other businesses in Việt Nam in recognising and solving their problems.

We will also increase co-operation with our business partners and customers to unveil various cognitive computing products. Importantly, in the very near future, Five9 will enter into a really big deal with IBM to become the first Vietnamese firm to bring an advanced technology supported cancer diagnosis equipment into the country.

With Five9’s continuous efforts and valued cooperation from our business partners, we hope to put artificial intelligence systems to efficient uses in multiple fields, to help promote economic development and quality of living in the country and beyond. — VNS