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The South African Companies Harnessing Artificial Intelligence

Almost 40% of businesses are using artificially intelligent programmes to manage some aspect of their business, with South African companies like Sage and Clevva innovating the market. A.I. programmes allow a business to examine massive amounts of data very quickly, finding patterns or displaying behaviors based on the information it receives. Put simply, it enables businesses to automate and speed up traditionally mundane tasks, and, with the number of businesses using A.I. set to hit 60% across the globe by 2018, South African companies are embracing the advantages that machine learning and data mining can bring.

1.   Absa

Absa bank is South Africa’s fourth largest bank and recently made the decision to use chatbots: A.I. programmes capable of analyzing human text requests, using the keywords to mine relevant data, and writing responses as though inscribed by human beings. The technology has helped revolutionize customer care, and Absa were the first company in the world to offer chatbot services via Facebook, enabling customers to do their banking without leaving the social media platform.

2.   Sage

Sage is an international consultancy with offices in South Africa that have provided organizations with the advice, information, and tools to continuously remain relevant and to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of modern business. Sage have produced the world’s first accountancy chatbot, Pegg, which monitors users’ bank accounts and accountancy to track real-time figures on income and expenditure, as well as forecasting and recommending actions, via an intuitive and human-like chat messaging system.

3.   The Center for Proteomic & Genomic Research

Hospitals across Africa are now using an A.I. called SOPHiA, by Swiss-based Company, Sophia Genetics, to integrate patient data and speed up analysis of “genomic data to identify disease-causing mutations”. South Africa’s Center for Proteomic & Genomic Research (CPGR) has joined a network of 260 hospitals across 46 countries. Now, any data uploaded into the system is automatically analyzed by SOPHiA using information correlated from every other hospital in the network, just as those hospitals will now benefit directly from CPGR’s own research.

4.   Isazi Consulting

While the other companies and organizations in this article are those which have adapted to embrace A.I., Isazi Consulting is one of the many South African start-ups that are taking advantage of combining emerging technologies with machine learning to solve long-standing problems. This data science and software development company is using data collection and machine learning to develop solutions not only plaguing Africa but the world, from predicting financial statement fraud to an accuracy of 80%, to collecting data on students to advise teachers the best way to optimise their classes.

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