There is fear that the introduction of AI may lead to the loss of jobs. Do you think that way?
There is a transcendence on the types of jobs done by human beings over the last 500 years due to technology; old jobs have transitioned, productivity and job quality is increasing, and there is increased income generated with these new jobs. Whether it’s the USA, Nigeria or India, there’s always more demand than available jobs. All of these jobs are high-quality high-paying jobs and have been responsible to grow the standard of living in these markets.
The Nigerian standard of living has grown due to telecom, connectivity, the internet, and other fascinating ways these technologies improve lives. Whether it’s banking, telecom, or retail, jobs are improving, and other jobs are being created. So, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will not cause a loss of jobs but will improve the quality and nature of jobs. Plus, it can help automate routine tasks and free people to focus on more strategic, higher-value.
AI is a technology that has been around for over 40 years. Computer scientists and innovators describe AI as the ability of a computer to think, act, or make decisions similar to what a human brain might do.
Typically, this involves analysing large amounts of data to understand the way a human brain would process that data and capture that in an automated way: it is a program that evolves itself based on the data that it’s being fed and on the past results that it is being fed. Using AI, the phone in your hand becomes a supercomputer because the amount of data that can be held has grown astronomically.
Looking at the impact of AI, how can AI positively transform and upscale businesses in Nigeria?
Within the larger AI space, we focus on Conversational AI, which helps brands engage with consumers in a more meaningful, personalised, and easily accessible way based on their product usage, livelihood, eating habits, etc. This is hard to deliver at scale and at a low cost because these businesses must study millions of consumers and interact with them. Conversational AI enables businesses to deliver one-to-one experiences with customers based on its ability to understand behaviours and preferences from past interactions.
In the last two years or so, have you done any pilots in Nigeria? Are there companies using these conversational AI solutions? How can these solutions impact the business?
We are active in Nigeria and launched several services pre-pandemic. In the last year, the Nigerian government had a major initiative to link people’s phone numbers to their National Identity Number (NIN). Thus, we put out a solution for NIN linking with a Nigerian telecom operator, MTN, through chatbots. We created a chatbot that aids citizens in completing the linking process from their phones. Another example is BuyPower who wanted to ease the purchase of power and be updated on their electricity level. We implemented a solution where users could buy power by creating a WhatsApp account for BuyPower with a built-in chatbot that allows users to pay on WhatsApp and get power without having to go to a store or a browser. Chat applications like WhatsApp are the new browsers.
You visited Nigeria in 2020. Since then, you’ve been following up with the growth of the ICT sector, what’s your view? How has it been growing and where do you expect it to be?
We have a subsidiary in Nigeria and we are extremely bullish about the Nigerian market. It is the largest market in Africa. The government is active in establishing e-governance by NIN linking. This step forms the basis for delivering more services. 5G is coming to Nigeria. We are active in enabling the next generation of messaging that comes with 5G. We are rolling out with MTN and Airtel through Rich Communication Services (RCS), a service upgrade to the SMS infrastructure. Using the same SMS/messaging app on your Android phone, brands can send richer messages – including pictures, videos, typing indicators, groups, etc. Businesses can send messages to their customers with a trust mark – a green tick mark–that verifies the name and logo of the business. We are instrumental in enabling this in Nigeria, together with MTN, Airtel, and Google. We are also taking this service to other African markets like South Africa, Ghana, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, etc.
Can you give us an overview of the AI global market? What is the value of AI in the Nigerian market and what can AI bring to the Nigerian economy?
The global conversational AI market size is expected to reach USD 41.39 billion by 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 23.6 per cent from 2022 to 2030. Additionally, I think a conservative estimate would put the conversational messaging market in Nigeria at hundreds of millions of dollars and with AI in these conversations, it can be tens to hundreds of millions of dollars.
MTN will launch 5G soon. It will help telecom operators bring solutions using AI, IoT, and blockchain. What is the future of these solutions and how will it transform Nigerians?
5G is a transformative technology that enables new types of services that were not possible before. 5G gives a broadband experience with hundreds of mbps capacity. 4G unleashed the video revolution. People are now used to watching videos on their mobile phones because the speed is sufficient for it. 5G is upgrading that to the level where the video quality improves.
Data will be held on the server side and cloud. Cloud adoption will grow rapidly and allow individuals to process and move data to their phones. The launch of 5G comes with an opportunity for Nigerian entrepreneurs to develop solutions that utilise this extra firepower. It will also transform the way consumers interact with businesses through messaging apps.
Do you have solutions that can be applicable to the public sector in Nigerian government agencies? How do you think that these solutions can help transform governance into e-governance?
Any multi-national company that works with millions of customers will find Conversational AI technology relevant. The Nigerian government works with 200 million people. There is a need to deliver services to them in a personalized manner. Conversational AI is that critical component for the government to be able to offer and deliver these services through WhatsApp, RCS, GBM, etc. In a matter of time, the Nigerian government will adopt it just as other countries have.
The whole area of conversational messaging and Conversational AI requires three distinct components. The first layer is called CPaaS which stands for Conversational Platform as a Service. It allows basic connectivity to messaging apps and allows businesses to send and receive messages. Another layer is called CX – Customer Engagement layer – which lets businesses use messaging for marketing, campaigns, promotions, upselling; for commerce, transactions, and payments; for automated and human support. The third layer is called Conversational AI, which looks at data sets, certain use cases and scenarios that can be automated. So, this is how conversational engagement comes to be a reality at scale, touching the lives of every consumer and the way they interact with the businesses they deal with.
Gupshup has been building up its services and this three-layered platform through a lot of internal investment and acquisitions that add to our existing capabilities and help us provide a full-stack conversational engagement solution to B2C brands.
Within the larger AI space, we focus on Conversational AI, which helps brands engage with consumers in a more meaningful, personalized, and easily accessible way based on their product usage, livelihood, eating habits, etc. This is hard to deliver at scale and at a low cost because these businesses must study millions of consumers and interact with them. Conversational AI enables businesses to deliver one-to-one experiences with customers based on its ability to understand behaviours and preferences from past interactions.
In the last two years or so, have you done any pilots in Nigeria? Are there companies using these conversational
AI solutions? How can these solutions impact the business?
We are active in Nigeria and launched several services pre-pandemic. In the last year, the Nigerian government had a major initiative to link people’s phone numbers to their National Identity Number (NIN). Thus, we put out a solution for NIN linking with a Nigerian telecom operator, MTN, through chatbots. We created a chatbot that aids citizens in completing the linking process from their phones. Another example is BuyPower who wanted to ease the purchase of power and be updated on their electricity level. We implemented a solution where users could buy power by creating a WhatsApp account for BuyPower with a built-in chatbot that allows users to pay on WhatsApp and get power without having to go to a store or a browser. Chat applications like WhatsApp are the new.
Credit: Leadership