SAS Istanbul event puts AI business value and governance in focus

SAS Innovate on Tour Istanbul brought business and technology representatives together on November 4 to discuss AI deployment, human oversight, agentic systems and practical experiences across industries.

Dji Banner Inside Article - 728x90

SAS held the Istanbul edition of its Innovate on Tour series at Raffles Istanbul on November 4, 2026. The event focused on how organizations can integrate data and artificial intelligence into business processes, with discussions covering human expertise, trustworthy data, governance and sector-specific applications.

The gathering took place during SAS’s 50th anniversary year and also highlighted its 30 years in Türkiye. In his opening remarks, Rasim Eğri, general manager of SAS Türkiye and Central Asia, emphasized organizations’ ability to turn data into decisions and business outcomes, rather than focusing only on how much data they hold.

Dr. Osman Cevdet Akçay, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye, also addressed participants. His contribution examined economic developments and the changing conditions facing businesses.

Human expertise alongside agentic AI

The main session featured SAS representatives Patrick Xhonneux, Davide Pecchia, Véronique Van Vlasselaer and Mari Nilsson Björkman. Their discussions explored cooperation between human specialists and AI systems, including agentic AI, digital twins and other intelligent applications.

A central theme was the move from systems that primarily generate responses toward applications capable of carrying out tasks and participating in workflows. Speakers considered how those systems connect with enterprise data, fit existing processes and complement human expertise.

Governance was addressed across the AI lifecycle. The discussion included transparency, accountability, monitoring for bias and maintaining human oversight as models and applications are used by different teams and at greater scale.

SAS Viya also featured in sessions on deploying and scaling AI responsibly. Examples ranging from copilots to autonomous agents were used to examine how AI can support different stages of analytical work. The emphasis was on incorporating these capabilities into organizational processes with suitable management and oversight.

Cross-sector experiences

Parallel sessions covered Financial Services, Compliance and Anti-Money Laundering, and Data and AI. Topics included risk management, fraud prevention, decision-making and the development and management of AI applications.

Representatives of Burgan Bank, Ziraat Katılım Bankası, Fibabanka, Milli Reasürans, Türk Telekom, İGDAŞ and WTech spoke during the program. Their contributions covered areas including financial crime, telecommunications analytics and digital transformation.

Partners including KPMG Türkiye, Linktera, Nexa Teknoloji and Sade Yazılım ve Danışmanlık also contributed to sessions. Their participation brought technology-provider and consulting perspectives into the discussion of how organizations implement data and AI projects.

Source: SAS press release. Image: SAS / cropped from the official press photograph.