MTN Group launches Africa’s first AI service for MoMo

The MTN Group has launched Africa’s first Mobile Money (MoMo) Artificial Intelligence (AI) service or “chatbot”.

A statement issued by the Group’s Corporate Affairs and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Tuesday said the chatbot went live in Ivory Coast in May and would be rolled out across MTN’s MoMo footprint in the next few months.

The AI mobile money “assistant” enables customers to engage with MTN’s MoMo services, including payments, on various social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, and via SMS.

The statement said the service would also be included over time, in MTN’s own newly released advanced instant messaging service “Ayoba”.

It said the chatbot was an AI guide that assists users to navigate MTN’s MoMo services and provide other useful information.

“This innovation leverages messaging and AI to drive customer engagement and enhance their MTN MoMo experience,” it added.

Rob Shuter, MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer said, “We are passionate about bringing the power of our mobile money solutions to more than 60 million customers across Africa over the next few years.”

He said harnessing modern technologies like AI could improve in scale, how MTN interacts with customers, enabling them to reach them anytime and anywhere, through a variety of channels including social networks and messaging applications.

“We can also harness the power of AI to provide our customers with the right answers to their questions at the right time,” he added.

He said the Company was committed to improving financial inclusion with a range of solutions aimed at addressing the needs of various market segments.

He said while MTN had made great strides in these areas, they would continue working to deliver their vision for MTN to become one of the largest Fintech players across our footprint.

Source: GNA