Artificial Intelligence in Business – An African Perspective

In a perspective piece by pctechmag.com, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being touted as one of the game-changers in the realm of technology. Experts believe we have made tremendous progress in AI and might as well be standing at the edge of the fourth industrial revolution, which is the technological revolution.

The impact of AI in the world is not limited by geography by any means and is in fact very much apparent in all the continents, including Africa. Africa is on par with the other continents in embracing AI. In fact, many sectors have already started to observe the improvements. These are:

Finance and Banking

Kudi.ai, a Nigeria-based startup is using an AI chatbot to help people make send or receive payments in the Nigeria through messaging. Its AI is used for understanding user requests, their spending habits, and even prevent frauds. What’s more, they have also started a pilot program with traditional banks and telecom companies to try to push a B2B solution.

Stockshop.co.za is another leading startup in Africa that’s offering AI solutions to insurance companies and banks. Some of its products/services include a bot interface that performs real-time identity verifications, a micro-insurance platform, and assistance with financial issues such as administration, analytics, etc.

Healthcare

Several medical institutions in South Africa, Cameroon, and Morocco have started using the SOPHiA AI for the analysis of genomic data that helps in the identification of disease-causing mutations in the genomic profiles of their patients. This helps the medical professionals to pick the best course of action for their patients.

A non-profit company Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon, is also using AI with a scanning platform that’s used for examining women for early signs of cervical cancer.

The device is an optical accessory that’s directly connected to an Android smartphone and coverts its standard camera into a colposcope. It’s then used to look for the signs of cervical cancer in the women, the accuracy of which is enhanced with AI.

Agriculture

Agriculture alone creates the highest number of jobs in Africa, and now it’s using AI for its modernization and improvement.

For instance, Aerobotics, a startup company based in the Cape Town is offering Aeroview, a platform to help the farmers increase their crop yield and work with higher efficiency. It uses drones, satellites and AI to process the geographical data and infra-red imagery, and offer optimized solutions. Believe it or not, it’s helping the farmers prevent up to 20% of crop failures.

Despite its tough economic situation, Africa gets full points for making an effort. Today, a large portion of its population is striving to bring a change in their countries and the effect is already apparent.

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