Krews, a Hub71 startup, secured an agreement with Abu Dhabi Entertainment Company (ADEC) to digitise the operations of Zayed Sports City and ACTIVE Al Maryah through its integrated platform QPortal.

The agreement will bring a host of benefits to both customers and the venue, streamlining activities, improving the customer booking journey, and enhancing operational efficiency, in a major boost to the sports and entertainment sector in Abu Dhabi

Founded by Emirati brothers Ahmed and Khalifa Al Qubaisi, Krews’ QPortal is transforming the sports and entertainment sector by providing venues with extensive enterprise solutions that enable them to efficiently create, manage, monitor and analyse operations at the fraction of the cost. By connecting assets across the entire operational ecosystem and streamlining activities, the portal enhances the customer booking journey with speed and agility.

The partnership reinforces Krews mission to disrupt and accelerate the digital transformation of the sports and entertainment industry in Abu Dhabi and make impactful change in the region.

Built in-house by a team of local experts, the turnkey system enables a seamless customer journey, and is helping entities optimise operations to unlock revenue opportunities and increase sales. The portal offers an entirely automated and flexible process, allowing venue operators to easily manage and update the system.

Since implementing Krews’ tech solutions earlier this year, ADEC has processed over 17,000 bookings for its venues including all sports facilities in Zayed Sports City and Active derived from all sales channels including website, mobile app, and tele sales.

Ahmed Alqubaisi, Founder and CEO of Krews, said, “One of the greatest benefits in digitising sports venues is seamless and real time bookings. Previously, customers had to go through the traditional process of making enquiries and waiting for their bookings to be confirmed, resulting in revenue loss for institutions and customer dissatisfaction. Krews identified this gap in the market, and since then we have been on a mission to revolutionize the sports and entertainment industry across the entire value chain. By allowing users to easily plan, organise and book social and sports activities and enabling world-class venues such in Abu Dhabi, to optimise their operations, we are contributing to healthier, more active and social societies.”

Khalid Al Mutawa, Acting CEO of Abu Dhabi Entertainment Company, added, ‘’The QPortal has consolidated these into a single platform, and we are now able to capture more robust data with less efforts. We are glad to be working with a locally founded business and have developed a strong relationship with Ahmed and the team. They have been flexible in ensuring the system meets the complex and varied demands of our business, and responsive to our requirements.”

Krews joined the Hub71 community in 2019, benefiting from a strong network of government entities, corporates, investors, and leading industry partners to unlock access to capital, market opportunities and talent.

Earlier this year, Krews also launched its one-of-a-kind app that offers interactive experiences for users, allowing like-minded individuals with the same interests and hobbies to connect with one another, book sports venues and pay with one click.

Amazon today announced RxPass, a new Prime membership benefit from Amazon Pharmacy that offers patients affordable access to commonly prescribed generic medications that treat more than 80 common health conditions. With RxPass, Prime members can receive all of their eligible medications for one flat, low monthly fee of $5, and have them delivered free of charge. There are no hidden fees and no markups to the $5 per month subscription. RxPass is available starting today in most U.S. states.

“Prime members already get fast, free delivery on prescription medications, and RxPass is one more way to save with Amazon Pharmacy. Any customer who pays more than $10 a month for their eligible medications will see their prescription costs drop by 50% or more, plus they save time by skipping a trip to the pharmacy,” said John Love, vice president of Amazon Pharmacy. “We are excited to offer our customers surprisingly simple, low pricing on the eligible medications they need each month.”

To enroll in RxPass, Prime members can go to Amazon.com or Amazon’s mobile app to create or update their Amazon Pharmacy profile. Once there, customers will be guided through a simple sign-up process that verifies their eligibility and prescription information. If customers have questions during the enrollment process or after a prescription arrives, Amazon pharmacists are on hand 24/7 to coordinate with a customer’s doctor or help with refills.

Amazon Pharmacy offers choice and convenience, whether customers are paying with insurance or not. When not using insurance, Prime members now have two innovative, affordable options to pay for prescription medications. Prime members who typically take two or more medications per month to manage chronic or ongoing health conditions could save significant time and money with the $5 a month RxPass subscription. Alternately, Prime members can save with the Prime prescription savings benefit—available for no additional fee—to get discounts up to 80% off generic and 40% off brand name medications at more than 60,000 participating pharmacies nationwide, including Amazon Pharmacy and the PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy service.

Amazon Pharmacy and PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy also welcome most health insurance plans, and offer low, transparent pricing for customers who use insurance to pay for their prescription medications. In addition, customers may use their HSA or FSA accounts when not paying with RxPass.

To learn more about Amazon Pharmacy or to sign up for RxPass, visit amazon.com/rxpass.

Every Day Made Better with Prime

RxPass is the newest benefit available for Prime members. Prime membership offers the best of shopping, savings, and entertainment to make life every day more convenient, budget-friendly, and fun. In the U.S. that includes free, fast delivery on millions of items, unlimited streaming of movies and series like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and live sports like Thursday Night Football with Prime Video, ad-free listening of 100 million songs and millions of podcast episodes with Amazon Music, prescription medications as low as $1 per month and free two-day shipping from Amazon Pharmacy, ultrafast Fresh grocery delivery, in-store savings on select groceries at Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market stores across the U.S., unlimited photo storage with Amazon Photos, free gaming benefits with Prime Gaming, more than 3,000 books and magazines with Prime Reading, Buy with Prime, which offers Prime shopping benefits like fast, free delivery, a seamless checkout experience, and easy returns on online stores beyond Amazon.com, and exclusive deals and shopping events like Prime Day. Members can now also enjoy a free, one-year Grubhub+ membership trial valued at $9.99 per month, offering unlimited $0 delivery fees on orders over $12. Anyone can join Prime for just $14.99 per month or $139 per year, or start a free 30-day trial at amazon.com/prime.

AI Center of Excellence will focus on finding carbon neutral solutions for existing energy resources and improving access to new AI technologies for Arabic speakers

ABU DHABI, UAE, Jan. 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) in collaboration with IBM (NYSE: IBM) formally launched an AI Center of Excellence on Tuesday, January 17, as part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week’s World Future Energy Summit. The Center aims to advance collaboration to improve the adoption of AI technology and help drive sustainability. The Center will develop carbon neutral solutions to existing energy supplies, combat climate change, and further natural language processing (NLP) for Arabic dialects.

Experts from IBM and MBZUAI plan to focus on decarbonization, with advanced research into climate change mitigation and adaptation. Joint research teams will work on the development of foundational AI models, which could help inform the deployment of clean and renewable energy in the electrification of multiple sectors across the economy. This approach will set the stage for use of carbon neutral solutions while also enabling adaptation and resiliency.

The AI Center of Excellence will also work to improve NLP for Arabic dialects, making AI more accessible and flexible for Arabic speakers. Improving NLP capabilities in Arabic dialects will help to address civic, social, and business challenges, while providing real-life applications such as personalised customer care, AI-powered assistants, improved search, and fraud detection, to name a few.

“The only way to Net Zero is through disruptive technologies and innovations that fundamentally re-program our energy production and consumption — harnessing big data to help drive more effective decision making and problem solving. In line with the vision of our leadership to benefit from the most advanced technological innovations, we are delighted to launch the Center of Excellence. This partnership between MBZUAI and IBM underscores the commitment of both organizations to develop AI solutions that work for the benefit of humanity,” said H.E. Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, President-Designate for COP28, and Chairman of MBZUAI.

“IBM’s collaboration with MBZUAI will leverage AI to address some of the most pressing issues of our time including sustainability and net zero strategies,” said Arvind Krishna, IBM Chairman and CEO. “The new Center of Excellence will also develop local digital skills and attract leading researchers that will help deliver the UAE’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2031.” 

The deployment and use of clean energy solutions is one of the main pillars of the UAE’s model of addressing the challenge of climate change and reducing GHG emissions, in line with UAE Net Zero 2050 strategic initiative. The AI Center of Excellence plans to leverage the talents of IBM researchers with expertise in data science, machine learning and NLP, in collaboration with MBZUAI faculty and students. The teams will work together towards the advancement of both fundamental and applied research objectives. 

Through IBM SkillsBuild platform, IBM will provide MBZUAI students and faculty with access to IBM tools, software, courseware and cloud accounts for teaching, learning, and non-commercial research. In addition, MBZUAI will have access to curated AI curricula, lectures, labs, industry use cases, design-thinking sessions, and an AI Practitioner certification. 

The potential of AI to solve big problems is increasing all the time. In the past few years, AI and transformational innovations have become more important in confronting some of society’s biggest challenges. Today, AI is helping countries and communities facing disease and natural disasters, and providing new opportunities for historically underserved groups.

Here are seven ways AI is already making the world a better place:

1. Forecasting floods and helping people stay safe through early warning systems

Last year the United Nations released a report stating that half of the world lacks adequate early warning systems for disasters like floods and fires. Yet research shows that the number of people impacted by climate-related crises and the damage they cause is only increasing. In response, we need lifesaving technology to help people stay safe and governments adequately prepare.

Our flood forecasting program covers dozens of countries. It shows forecast information in Search and Maps, and sends alerts to mobile devices to notify people in harm’s way. And our FloodHub features detailed inundation maps so people can see exactly what to expect in their location.

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2. Detecting real-time wildfire boundaries to aid in firefighting

We use satellite imagery to create AI models that can detect wildfire boundaries in real time, and we show their location in Search and Maps. Last year, we applied our models to more than 30 wildfires in the U.S. and Canada, which helped inform local residents and firefighters. We’ve now expanded to Mexico and parts of Australia as well.

3. Monitoring prenatal health

Global maternal mortality rates are unacceptably high, with about 295,000 women dying during and following pregnancy and childbirth in 2017, most from causes that could have been treated or prevented with adequate healthcare. Ultrasounds, for example, have become a routine part of prenatal care for many, but are still difficult to access in low-resource settings, due in part to a lack of adequately trained healthcare workers. We are working with Northwestern Medicine to develop and test AI models to enable lightly trained ultrasound operators in low-resource settings to accurately identify potential problems and risks, such as fetal positioning.

4. Fighting pest infestations of crops

Pest infestations of cotton and food crops can devastate farmers and those who rely on their harvest. We are collaborating with InstaDeep and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to better detect locust outbreaks in Africa to make it possible to implement control measures. We’ve also supported Wadhwani AI in India to create an AI-powered app that helps identify and treat infestations of pests, resulting in a 20% reduction in pesticide sprays and a 26% increase in profit margins for farmers.

5. Helping address population changes and humanitarian response through buildings

Open Buildings is an open-access dataset project using AI to interpret satellite imagery, designed to pinpoint the locations and geometry of buildings. This information is useful for a number of important applications, from population estimation, urban planning and humanitarian response, to environmental and climate science. Available in Africa, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, the project enables governments and aid organizations to better understand the needs of residents, both in everyday life and in crisis situations.

6. Detecting genetic variations that cause disease

Thanks to a partnership with PacBio, researchers are using our deep learning technology, DeepConsensus, to quickly and accurately identify genetic variants that cause diseases. This will help scientists to uncover serious genetic conditions, such as an elevated risk for breast cancer or pulmonary arterial hypertension.

7. Helping people with non-standard speech connect and be understood

Millions of people have difficulty being understood when they speak. Project Relate, an Android app built on AI research, helps people with non-standard speech communicate more easily with others. It can transcribe speech into text, use a synthesized voice to repeat what’s been said, or communicate directly with the speaker’s Google Assistant to complete any number of tasks, from playing a song to turning the lights on.

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