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The firm

Information Age Consulting is a Kuwaiti I.T. and AI consultancy, founded and led by a professor of computational linguistics.

Information Age Consulting was built on a simple observation: the tools that let organisations understand their own text — search, analytics, automation, and now large language models — were designed for English and adapted for Arabic as an afterthought. In Kuwait, that afterthought is where the value is.

Our founder has worked on both sides of that gap for more than two decades: teaching and researching Arabic language processing at Kuwait University, and advising the institutions that have to make it work in production. His research covers computational linguistics, natural language processing, text mining, data analytics and visualisation, information retrieval, e-government and e-learning. He is a contributing author to a volume on computational Arabic morphology.

He also produced and presented information technology programmes on Kuwait TV from 2004 to 2018.

Public-sector advisory roles

Consultant, Office of Consultative Studies and Research, Amiri Diwan (Royal Court)
Consultant to the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Kuwait University
Consultant, Central Agency for Information Technology
Consultant, UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) — author of the National I.T. Profile of the State of Kuwait 2013 (PDF, Arabic, 53pp)
Consultant, National Assembly (Kuwaiti Parliament)
Consultant, Ministry of Information
Consultant, Ministry of Education
Technical committee, board of CITRA

Committee service

  • Steering Committee for designing and developing the official portal of Kuwait (e.gov.kw)
  • Committee for establishing and administrating comprehensive and self-service centres in Kuwait governorates
  • Committee for refurbishing personal computers used in the governmental sector
  • Committee for media awareness and national human capacity building in information technology
  • Committee for using ICT in education, Ministry of Education
  • Academic Committee for E-Learning, and the Committee for Establishing Smart Classes, Kuwait University

External recognition

  • Microsoft published a case study on the Ministry of Education distance-learning programme, 30 March 2021.
  • Forrester Research cited our Arabic natural language processing, big data and text analytics work in The Gulf Cooperative Council’s Big Data Opportunity, November 2015.
  • Pulsar (Face Group, UK) published a case study on the Social Intelligence Analyzer, September 2016.
  • Social Watcher was selected for the ITU’s COVID-19 Response ICT Case Repository mid-term report, from 150 solutions submitted worldwide within a month.

Recognition

Three awards from the International Telecommunication Union

The WSIS Prizes are awarded by the ITU on behalf of the United Nations. Winner is the top tier; Champion is the tier below it.

WSIS Prizes 2017 — Winner

Kuwait University · Category 9, E-learning · Geneva, 13 June 2017

Prof. Alnajem receives the WSIS Prize 2017 from ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, Geneva, 13 June 2017.
Prof. Alnajem receives the WSIS Prize 2017 from ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, Geneva, 13 June 2017.
Prof. Alnajem with the WSIS Prize trophy, WSIS Forum 2017.
Prof. Alnajem with the WSIS Prize trophy, WSIS Forum 2017.
The 2017 WSIS Prize winners on stage at the WSIS Forum, Geneva.
The 2017 WSIS Prize winners on stage at the WSIS Forum, Geneva.
The late Amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, honouring Dr. Salah Alnajem on winning the WSIS Prize 2017.The late Amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, honouring Dr. Salah Alnajem on winning the WSIS Prize 2017.
The late Amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, honouring Dr. Salah Alnajem on winning the WSIS Prize 2017.
Certificate of recognition, signed by the ITU Secretary-General.
Certificate of recognition, signed by the ITU Secretary-General.

WSIS Prizes 2019 — Champion

Information Age Consulting · Category 15, Cultural Diversity and Identity, Linguistic Diversity and Local Content · Geneva, 9 April 2019

Receiving the WSIS Prizes 2019 Champion certificate, Geneva, 9 April 2019.
Receiving the WSIS Prizes 2019 Champion certificate, Geneva, 9 April 2019.
Certificate of recognition, signed by the ITU Secretary-General.
Certificate of recognition, signed by the ITU Secretary-General.

WSIS Prizes 2022 — Champion

Information Age Consulting, for Social Watcher · Category 9, Media · Geneva, 3 June 2022

Receiving the WSIS Prizes 2022 Champion certificate for Social Watcher, Geneva, 3 June 2022.
Receiving the WSIS Prizes 2022 Champion certificate for Social Watcher, Geneva, 3 June 2022.
Certificate of recognition, signed by the ITU Secretary-General.
Certificate of recognition, signed by the ITU Secretary-General.

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