Artificial intelligence has been deployed across multiple Vodacom business units.
Vodacom is investing in modernising its infrastructure to democratise artificial intelligence (AI) and make its benefits accessible to more Africans.
This is according to Mohamed Sami, group CIO of Vodacom, speaking recently at the launch of Google’s first Africa-based cloud region.
According to Sami, Vodacom’s AI strategy is premised on providing innovative customer experiences, driving financial and digital inclusion, and leveraging emerging technologies to provide sustainable value.
“In order to deliver on our promise, and to make use of the advancement of technology, it is natural that we continue heavily investing in the modernisation of our network infrastructure and the modernisation of our digital and IT platforms.
“We are very excited about AI’s potential to transform every aspect of our business. But one thing that is close to my heart is the concept of democratising data and democratised AI,” he said.
“We would like our people across different parts of the business, regardless of the depth of technology knowledge they have, to own the power of AI and multi-modal agents, in order to create change and advancement across our customer experience, incorporate efficiency and improve the productivity of the business in general.”
AI has been deployed across multiple business units, including Vodacom’s consumer services (voice, data, messaging and financial services) and enterprise solutions (connectivity, managed mobility, cloud and hosting), as well as internal processes, Sami explained.
This, as SA sees growing adoption of AI, as enthusiasm surrounding the emerging technology outweighs the concerns, according to a survey conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Google.
Sami pointed out that Google has been a key partner to Vodacom parent company, Vodafone, during its digital transformation. Through Google Cloud, the operator has been able to access Google’s AI ecosystem and learning solutions, helping its IT teams to better serve customers.
“Google’s technology is also helping us to drive and resolve some challenges that we experience and help us take our operations to the next level through the African lens, and focus on resolving specific African challenges.
“Through things like AI-driven chatbots and network planning, AI is utilised to improve fraud management and cyber security, and deliver personalised fintech experiences. These form part of the many examples that we are excited about.”
“Today, we have over 200 million customers that we are serving and we are growing the landscape of business customers across corporations, SMEs and a large number of merchants that utilise our services every day.
“Technology puts us at the forefront of our responsibilities first, by providing instant connectivity for customers, especially those in underserved areas. Digital inclusion is a big focus of ours.
“By pushing distribution of smartphones and allowing customers to utilise AI, [we are] enabling businesses to become more successful at what they do.”
