AI Benefits to Business and Consumers in Africa
We’ve been led to believe that robots will take over the world and that artificial intelligence is achieving the same level as human intelligence. However, this is not entirely true; research has highlighted that artificial intelligence is slowly weaving its way into helping us make better business decisions. The importance of data is that it can be accumulated, analyzed, and with that, valuable business decisions can be made. Artificial intelligence is really about automating to make humans more efficient at their jobs. Read more on AI benefits to businesses and consumers in Africa.
Customer service
Customer service is considered a cost center, and many organizations are focusing on customer improvement efforts while reducing costs. This can be a critical mistake, as everyone is left unhappy. Customers are tired of pressing two, and service reps are sick of answering the same questions repeatedly. The latest technology for service is virtual agents: Automated systems, trained on service transcripts, that can use AI to recognize and respond to customer requests, whether by phone or chat. However, these or not the only benefits, let’s have a look at three different ways in which AI can improve the customer service experience :
- Case classification – an AI system that learns from your case history and automatically routes cases to the right agent.
- Article recommendations – AI that automatically recommends helpful articles to assist your agents and then presents them with relevant recommendations for their customers
- Chatbox– a powered experience that can help your customers solve their problems quickly and easily.
Shopping experience
More and more shoppers are buying their groceries online, and that’s steadily increasing with new technologies like artificial intelligence. Retailers are challenged to match smart kitchens with smart aisles, and grocers who are securing the edge are the ones that are investing in AI platforms. These platforms are designed specifically for retail; they’re built on the retail-specific data. In two to three months, it learns the behaviours and the preferences of your actual customer base. What you have is a highly accurate forecasting model that can help you make inventory and pricing decisions. In many areas in Africa, entrepreneurs aren’t financially able to set up a business premise. They then opt for selling their products online and with IA they now have a better chance at a successful online business.
Financing
Artificial intelligence will drive and inform business strategy while being both adaptive and dynamic. It’s a journey that starts with accounts payable to deliver significant productivity. It’s the end of the process of traditional three-way matching between POS, goods receivables and invoices. It is introducing AI and image recognition into the mix to work with prearranged supplier contracts and cost matrices that trigger automatic payment on receipt of goods. AI is tasked with scouting the market for new suppliers, including simulations of costing options and overall profitability levels. The financial industry dramatically depends on real-time reporting, accuracy and processing of the larger chunks of the quantitative data that helps to make crucial decisions. AI is assisting the users to work with the finance sector more quickly by executing learning, algorithmic trading, adaptive intelligence, automation, and chatbots for an array of processes.
AI and Africa
Research estimates that technology could increase the GDP of Africa, Oceania, and other Asian markets by 5.6 %, which is about $11.2 – trillion (but excludes China and developed Asia). Economically Africa will benefit significantly from AI.
In December 2019, Egypt presented a proposal to form an African working group tasked with developing the first unified strategy on artificial intelligence across the continent. The initiative will provide the African continent with the opportunity to present a unified African position in the field in collaboration with the private and international institutions. The development of AI in Africa should reflect positively on other areas such as education, health, and agriculture
AI is the most essential thing that is going to hit our continent. We are at the start of a wave of AI a revolution, and it will impact every industry across Africa and the world. It is absolutely profound, the important thing at the heart of AI is the algorithms that drive it. Algorithms define the future, and people forget that algorithms are not just technical they are political and cultural.
AI is beginning to achieve superhuman performance and is incredibly essential. We need to transform to a smart Africa we need to change to an intelligent Africa.
The positive impact IA can have on Africa businesses and customers is significant. Increased connectivity and the growth in social media usage all indicate that economic growth is evident in Africa. The uncertainties are beyond the control of anyone, but we are eager to see how Ia benefits African countries.
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