One of the earliest examples of AI in Africa is USSD on mobile phones, where businesses used programmatic language to respond to end-users, giving options and then providing an appropriate response based on input received.

So says Douglas van Wyk, regional manager at Infobip, adding that, contrary to the Hollywood-informed perceptions, in reality, AI is not necessarily a walking, talking robot. It takes many forms and has many use cases and can be simple or complex depending on the application. Currently, AI is commonly used to take mundane, repetitive and low intelligence tasks away from human agents, automating them and vastly improving efficiency. This is especially useful for static information such as location data and frequently asked questions, which can easily be offered to users in a self-service manner. It is also used in predictive analytics, something that is valuable for solutions such as customer engagement.