Browsing: Artificial intelligence

How artificial intelligence will impact the South African workforce. www.theexchange.africa

CyborgIntell Africa says it will work closely with financial institutions and other enterprises to help them rapidly develop, deploy and operationalize AI applications at scale.

A statement says the CyborgIntell platform addresses the key challenges companies face in the data science/machine learning lifecycle – from data selection and modelling, and operationalizing AI, to managing risk and governance.

“AI is a powerful and transformative technology, yet many companies across the world find it difficult to unlock its full potential. More than a third (36%) of organizations take more than 90 days to deploy data science machine learning (ML) projects, while the failure rate of such initiatives is estimated to be 85% across industries,” said McLachlan, CyborgIntell managing director.

One of the many lessons learned from the pandemic is that SMEs need to embrace digital transformation, not just to weather unplanned challenges but because it will help them be more competitive and stable. Digital enablement is not just a means of survival. It is a way for SMEs to conduct business more efficiently, which in turn can empower them to expand their operations and earnings further. 

Being nimbler than their big business counterparts, SMEs can quickly rethink their marketing strategies and adopt new technologies to enhance their offerings faster. Digital innovation provides extraordinary opportunities for SMEs. It empowers them to implement new market models, has a greater line of sight across their business, improves traceability, and meet their customers, service providers, and logistics partners, in many instances, all on the same page. 

In the digital trading space, solutions such as import/export platforms, automated cargo-tracking and digital reporting of non-tariff barriers can significantly provide efficient cross-border trade levelling the playing field for SMEs. This, in turn, is good for both the customers and communities they serve as well as the continent’s economic growth on a wider scale.

Ecocash introduces chatbot

According to an article by BotsCrew, a WhatsApp chatbot is an automated software powered by rules or artificial intelligence (AI) and runs on the WhatsApp platform. People communicate with WhatsApp chatbot via the chat interface, like talking to a real person. It’s a set of automated replies that simulates a human conversation on WhatsApp.

In May 2022, WhatsApp opened the API for businesses of any size. Previously, it was available only for medium and large businesses, so smaller companies had to contact other providers to access WhatsApp API.

Today, any business can directly sign up or get started with one of the business solution providers to access a New Cloud-based API.

Albert.Nangara. Airports in Africa. pic1

According to Frontiers, AI has been recognized to have a wide potential to reduce human workload or increase human capabilities in complex scenarios, but today it is evident that AI also has an important role in transforming our life by promoting more efficient existing services or new services.

AI is already contributing to a large spectrum of applications in Africa’s aviation and air traffic systems, providing support to its managers (airlines/airport managers, air traffic management) and operators (pilots, air traffic controllers, airport operators, flow controllers).

Governments are focusing on contactless travellers’ experience hence there have been innovations in biometric authentication at airports. For instance, Kenya ruled out paper verification of COVID-19 test results and vaccination certificates upon arrival, sparking local airlines’ adoption of electronic verification processes.

Google positioning itself to reap from the explosive internet market in Africa. www.theexchange.africa

The governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, was the special guest of honour at the digital launch and reception to mark the landing of Equiano sea cable systems in Nigeria.

Nigeria marks Equiano’s second stop in Africa after Togo, with future landings expected in Swakopmund, Namibia, and Melkbosstrand, South Africa.

While speaking at the digital launch, Juliet Ehimuan, Google’s business strategy director in West Africa, said that the cable leverage state of the art technology to provide approximately twenty times more network capacity than the last cable built to serve the region.