Cassava Technologies (Cassava) has announced that its AI activities will now operate as a separate business unit, Cassava AI.
Hardy Pemhiwa, president and group CEO, Cassava, said veteran ICT executive Ahmed El Beheiry will lead the AI unit. “Cassava AI is headquartered in London and can already provide services in any of the 40-plus markets in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, where the Cassava Technologies group companies operate,” says Pemhiwa.
In a statement, the systems integrator says it will leverage established partnerships with industry heavyweights such as Microsoft, Google, AWS, Anthropic, Oracle, Atlas AI, Cerebras, and Palo Alto Networks. Cassava aims to use these relationships “to offer superior systems integration” and support enterprise customers across strategic international markets.
The company has now added AI to its services portfolio, which already includes; data centers, cloud services, cyber security, fiber connectivity, and renewable energy for large multinational and local companies. It also says it has trained more than 200 of its 5 000-strong staff to focus on GenAI from various vendors and encourage customers to adopt and use the technology.
Cassava Founder & Executive Chairman, Strive Masiyiwa, stated, “We at Cassava AI also offer a growing suite of our own homegrown solutions. We can even enable very large businesses an opportunity to develop their own AI solutions using what are known as API’s. Whilst in the past many people would have expected Africa to adopt a new technology many years or even decades after it became available in so-called developed economies, this is no longer the case… because of globally aware Africans. Even with AI, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how many African business leaders have reached out to us looking to get into the game.”
Masiyiwa concluded, “We have chosen an approach which I believe gives us competitive advantage. Although Cassava AI is notably a company of global focus, we are already the biggest provider of Cloud services to African companies, using products like Google Workspace and Microsoft Office. We generally find that companies that have moved to the Cloud are the most likely to take up AI products. It was a no-brainer.”
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