Oracle’s Rees highlights Azerbaijan’s progress in digitalisation

Digitalisation and technology adoption are at a high level in Azerbaijan, Jason Rees, Senior Vice President of Technology Engineering at Oracle EMEA, said at a panel discussion during the Second Azerbaijan International Investment Forum (AIIF 2026) in Baku.

Rees said that building an intelligent economy requires sufficient computing capacity and the necessary technological infrastructure.

“Of course, we need infrastructure, data centres, and GPUs, but ultimately, it is also crucial to have reliable data, analytical insights, and business context. By the way, at the Formula 1 races taking place in Baku, technology and artificial intelligence will also be used to assist the teams. Thus, whether in the public or private sector, or in sports, artificial intelligence completely changes our perspective on what is happening. It is necessary to ensure the presence of artificial intelligence at every level of the technology stack. We call this a ‘built-in, not bolted-on’ approach. I consider this extremely important because artificial intelligence must be accessible to people so they can benefit from it, rather than being limited solely to infrastructure, although energy, computing power, and artificial intelligence are inextricably linked,” Rees said.

He also stressed the importance of recognising data as a fundamental component of artificial intelligence for Azerbaijan and its other partners.

According to Rees, the effectiveness of AI depends directly on the quality and reliability of the underlying data. He said data must be stored and used securely, while the context in which it is applied must also be taken into account.

Without those safeguards and the appropriate context, Rees said, data alone cannot unlock the full potential of artificial intelligence.

By Tamilla Hasanova