Econet AI: Ndebele Chatbot to Boost Customer Service

Econet AI is launching a Ndebele-speaking customer-support chatbot later this month. This chatbot will help expand access to customer services. Here's the thing: The AI model was trained using thousands of hours of recorded speech from Ndebele speakers. It aims to understand customer queries and provide accurate responses in natural language. The service will roll out in phases. The goal is for the chatbot to hold fully conversational interactions in Ndebele by the end of 2026. This development is similar to Econet AI's Shona-speaking chatbot, Yamurai, which already handles over 70 percent of customer inquiries. Both chatbots learn from real customer interactions. They improve their ability to understand and answer questions by studying how human agents respond. What's interesting is that these AI platforms work alongside about 600 employees; they complement human agents, rather than replacing them. Econet also plans to add Tonga and other major regional and international languages like Swahili, Mandarin, and French. The bottom line is that Econet wants to use AI to improve customer service, increase accessibility, and deliver faster support across its platforms. This means more people can easily get help with their questions.