The Fifth National Conference on Digital Transformation Held at Khatam University

According to the Public Relations and Website Office of Khatam University, the Fifth National Conference on Digital Transformation, organized by the Iran Management Association and hosted by Khatam University, took place today, Wednesday, July 29, with the participation of senior executives, faculty members, students, and researchers. The event featured the presentation of the latest research findings and specialized papers related to digital transformation.

The program included several specialized panel discussions and lectures on digital transformation, during which leading experiences and best practices in the field were presented. Outside the main auditorium, startup companies showcased their latest products to conference participants.

In his opening address, Dr. Majid Ghasemi, President of Khatam University, began by referring to the country's current circumstances and said: "We are living in a time when our economy stands on the threshold of a major transformation. As a strong nation, we have demonstrated such resilience against what was once called a superpower that we have proven the only true superpower is God. God willing, after the end of this war, this resilience will lead to the removal of the deprivations our people have endured over the past 47 years from their legitimate rights to a good life, meaningful engagement with other countries, and the opportunity to demonstrate Iranian talent at every level. God willing, in the fields of national economic smartization, development, and related areas—including data-driven development—we will surpass others internationally."

The Chair of the Policy Council of the Fifth National Conference on Digital Transformation then delivered a keynote speech on "Data-Driven Indigenous Development." He stated that digital transformation is creating a new type of economy whose output consists of information generated through the countless daily activities of individuals. He noted: "A data-driven economy represents a stage of the digital economy in which data becomes the primary infrastructure for value creation, enabling the development of innovative business models, smart public services, and data-driven decision-making."

He described data governance as an enabling factor in the data economy and added: "A clear understanding of data governance and how it can be implemented in practice is essential for every organization if it is to fully leverage the opportunities of the data economy. The building blocks of data governance include data structures, data policies, data tools, and the participants responsible for organizing data."

Dr. Ghasemi further stated that the ideal model integrates data governance and artificial intelligence under a unified governance framework, saying: "To support the transition toward AI-based models, governance in both data and artificial intelligence must evolve in parallel. The most important issues in data-driven development are ensuring that data remains current, comprehensive, and secure."

Next, Dr. Rasoul Saraeian, a lecturer and digital transformation consultant, delivered a presentation titled "AI-First in the Healthcare Industry: Leadership Capabilities and Human Capital for Data-Driven Value Creation." Emphasizing the need for a shared understanding of AI in business and its leadership and managerial capabilities, he said: "To achieve this goal, we must design our organizations around AI and fundamentally rethink and redesign our mindset from the ground up." He added: "One of the key factors driving this rapid pace of change is the widespread adoption of AI in value creation. This trend has accelerated dramatically in the healthcare sector. For example, we are increasingly witnessing the personalization of drug prescriptions and treatments for patients. If we want our organizations to become AI-First, we must begin at the top of the organizational hierarchy. AI-First is a managerial and organizational approach in which an organization's strategy, processes, decisions, and stakeholder experiences are redesigned from the outset around the best possible collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence, rather than simply adding a few AI tools to an old model. If value creation is our objective, we must give this issue special attention."

The conference then featured Dr. Shirin Aslani, Dean of the Faculty of Management and Economics at Sharif University of Technology, who presented a lecture titled "Transitioning to a Data-Driven Decision-Making Culture: From Insight to Value Creation." Using examples of AI implementation at companies such as Google, Merci, and Shell to reduce costs, she described data governance as one of the most prominent trends in today's AI landscape and sought to answer the question of how organizations confront the challenges in this field.

She explained that these challenges fall into three categories: strategic, organizational and human, and technical and operational, adding: "Very often, organizational leaders are not sufficiently supportive. If they do not recognize the importance of data utilization, projects fail from the outset. We therefore need people who both understand data thoroughly and possess deep expertise in the core business. At the same time, change management is an extremely serious matter that requires careful planning and clearly defined, up-to-date performance indicators."

The conference continued with a specialized panel entitled "The Digital Ecosystem and the Capabilities of Indigenous Actors in Innovation." The panel featured Mohammad Sedaghatnejad, CEO of Datis Arian Qeshm Software Company (Dotin); Mohammad Ajedani, CEO of Pasargad Electronic Payment Company; and Dr. Azar Saemian, Chair of the Board of the Union of Scientific, Technology, Innovation and Commercialization Associations of Iran and Secretary of the Iran Management Association, who served as moderator.

During the panel, Dr. Saemian noted that recent academic literature on digital transformation has paid significant attention to the concept of the ecosystem. However, she observed that in practice, insufficient attention has been given to the principal actors within these ecosystems and the factors influencing them. She called on researchers to devote greater attention to ecosystem stakeholders, particularly in the context of digital transformation.

Speaking at the same session, Mohammad Sedaghatnejad, CEO of Datis Arian Qeshm Software Company (Dotin), stated that customers occupy the central position in every ecosystem as its primary stakeholders. He added: "Service providers also play an essential role within business ecosystems. Technology helps us by providing high-quality analyses and forecasts at scale, thereby playing a significant role in improving productivity."

Mohammad Ajedani, CEO of Pasargad Electronic Payment Company, also emphasized the importance of stakeholders within the ecosystem and stated: "The key components of the digital ecosystem are platforms, data, automation, and artificial intelligence. One of AI's most important contributions in this context is scalability. Scalability means growing business operations and revenue without increasing costs. In recent years, we have witnessed examples of this in Iran's digital economy, including online shopping, neobanks, and ride-hailing services."

The Fifth National Conference on Digital Transformation also hosted another specialized panel titled "Cybersecurity and Data Protection." The panel was chaired by Dr. Seyed Mehdi Hosseini, Senior Executive for Smart Industry at Fanap Infrastructure, and included Dr. Fouad Ghaderi, Associate Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Tarbiat Modares University; Neda Zendedel Nobari, Head of Information Security at Bank Pasargad; and Dr. Seyed Ali Mousavi, Senior Executive for Comprehensive Information Businesses at Fanap Infrastructure.

In his introductory remarks, Dr. Hosseini stated that digital transformation is no longer a matter of choice but an unavoidable necessity for organizations. He stressed that it must be implemented based on a coherent methodology. Explaining the role of data-centricity and data governance as key pillars of digital transformation, and referring to international frameworks such as DMBOK, he described security as one of the fundamental components of data governance, saying: "Without cybersecurity and data protection, sustainable digital transformation cannot be achieved."

During the session, Neda Zendedel emphasized that cybersecurity must be viewed from three perspectives, stating: "First, we must determine the value of data and whether all data within an organization carries the same value. Second, data security must also be evaluated in terms of its available solutions. A fundamental principle always applies: if the cost of securing a piece of data exceeds the value of the data itself, then such an investment is unjustified and should not be made."

Dr. Mousavi identified four principal pillars of data governance as technology, processes, people and culture, and business, stating: "The higher we raise security layers, the slower decision support and decision-making become, which itself can become a challenge. Security should be viewed as a means of building customer trust. This trust enables confident sales while also strengthening the authenticity of data."

Dr. Qaderi also emphasized in this meeting that in the field of security, we have both the ecosystem and various actors, and said: "In the field of security, we have both an ecosystem and multiple actors. At the same time, ecosystems face a wide range of security issues—from data breaches and information leaks to human-related data security challenges. One defining characteristic of any ecosystem is the dynamic nature of the events that occur within it. One important change brought about by artificial intelligence is that each of us, as members of organizations, now has access to far more data than before. In this sense, monopolies over information have been broken."

According to the report, at the conclusion of the Fifth National Conference on Digital Transformation, following the reading of the conference's final statement, the authors of the three best papers were recognized:

1. First Prize: Agentic Artificial Intelligence: The Future of Leadership, Governance, and Work in Organizations
   Authors: Amirhossein Roshanzamir and Shahin Mirzaei
2. Second Prize: Developing an AI Adoption Maturity Model for Human Resource Management with an Emphasis on Data Governance and Data-Driven Human Capital
   Authors: Touraj Akbari Ghatar and Hesam Zandhasami
3. Third Prize: A Conceptual Framework for Developing Managers' Digital Competencies and Implementing Data-Driven Governance in Intelligent Organizations
   Author: Saeed Hadavand