Econet Ai, a wholly owned subsidiary of Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, has launched a major campaign to encourage ordinary Zimbabweans to learn about artificial intelligence (AI) and how to use it in their everyday lives, taking its outreach to schools, small businesses and social gatherings.
The campaign marks a shift from the company’s initial focus on applying AI within its own operations, to promoting its wider use among the public. The company is drawing on strategies it used to popularise services such as EcoCash to drive mass adoption.
“We want everyone who has a smartphone to start using AI, and that is nearly 70% of our base. Unfortunately, you can’t access AI without a proper smartphone,” said Econet Ai Chief Executive Officer Mr Navdeep Kapur.
Central to the campaign is CAIMEX, a platform that gives users access to 100 AI models and allows them to select the cheapest model for a particular task. The platform is the first of its kind in Africa.
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Users access the models by purchasing AI tokens which power their interactions with the tools. These can answer questions and carry out tasks, from helping students study to enabling church pastors to find a Bible verse in seconds.
Econet says its ambition is to make Zimbabwe the most AI-savvy country in Africa, matching countries like China, Singapore and the US where up to 70% of citizens use AI on a daily basis.
The company believes wider adoption can increase national productivity by helping people complete tasks more quickly and work more efficiently, contributing to greater prosperity.
Econet Group Chief Executive Officer Dr Douglas Mboweni said Zimbabwe already had what the company believes to be the highest level of daily AI interaction in Africa, supported by services such as Yamurai, EcoChat and EcoFarmer.
“Zimbabweans are using AI every day through Econet products like Yamurai, EcoChat, and EcoFarmer. Students are already using AI for study. I don’t know of an African country that has reached our level of AI interaction and adoption; Zimbabweans should be very proud,” he said.
Econet is the only mobile operator in Africa with a multilingual AI helpline offering support in local languages. Its Yamurai service answers questions in English, Shona and now Ndebele, with other languages spoken in Zimbabwe set to be added soon.
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