HARARE, Aug. 26 (NewsDay Live) — Econet Wireless is implementing more than 20 major artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives aimed at improving customer experience and streamlining its operations.
The telecommunications company recently recruited more than 100 university graduate engineers to work on its AI projects, most of which are being developed for internal use across virtually all areas of the business.
AI is already helping Econet identify and resolve customer-service problems at individual subscriber level.
“This technology is remarkable, and every day we are discovering new ways to identify and solve problems that were extremely difficult to address in the past,” Econet Wireless CEO Douglas Mboweni said.
“Take network faults, for example: we can now trace a fault within minutes, whereas previously it could take us hours or even days.”
Mboweni said AI had also enabled the company to diagnose problems affecting customers’ mobile phones, including issues that subscribers might not know existed.
“We recently discovered that more than a million handsets had been configured at the wrong speed, preventing customers from properly accessing services such as TikTok and YouTube or watching short videos without buffering,” he said.
“With AI, we can now identify the affected handsets. We will soon advise customers on how to change their settings or invite them to visit our shops for assistance.”
Econet is stepping up its investment in AI as it seeks to improve service quality and develop new revenue-generating products.
Mboweni said the company was still at the beginning of its AI journey, but early results were encouraging.
“We are learning quickly and investing in both people and infrastructure,” he said.
“We now have access to AI capabilities at a scale unmatched in Africa, supported by our own cloud infrastructure, which is being deployed right now, as we speak.”
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