Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane was one of the star attractions as the first ever DAIS (Dubai Artificial Intelligence in Sports) conference, held at Dubai World Trade Centre.

His Highness Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai’s Executive Council and the Dubai Sports Council, welcomed guests to the two-day event, which was organised under the theme ‘Together We Make The Future of Sports’.

 “His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said that in Dubai, we do not wait for the future, but we create it,” Sheikh Hamdan said in his opening address at the DAIS Conference.

“Inspired by his words, we are pleased to see Dubai Sports Council bringing together the world’s leading innovators from the world of AI and robotics, and top decision-makers from the sphere of sports to share their insights and showcase their expertise.

“The presence of these experts here is a great opportunity for those working in our sports sector to take a peek into the future of sports and learn about futuristic sports-related technologies available around different countries of the world.”

Legendary France midfielder Zidane was joined at DAIS by AI pioneer Dr Christian Guttmann, the Global Head of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science at Nordic software engineering company Tieto, to discuss how Artificial Intelligence will impact sport in the future.

Despite the rapid advances in technology, Zidane said: “Artificial intelligence plays a very important role now, but in my view human intelligence remains the most important.”