Synapse - Africa’s 4IR Trade & Innovation Magazine - 2nd Quarter 2019 Issue 04 by AI Media Group

SYNAPSE

2nd QUARTER 2019 ZAR25 | US$2.50 | Euro1.60

The Voice of African AI & Data Science Indian Software Giant Persistent Systems Joins Stellar AI Expo Africa 2019 Line-Up

MICROSOFT BRINGS THE CLOUD TO AFRICA WITH CONTINENTAL DATA-CENTRES Granadilla.ai - Insurance’s Fresh New Face

CORTEX VENTURES AFRICA’S FIRST AI-FOCUSED VC LAUNCHES CLICK-TO-PITCH

PROTECTING YOUR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IP

INSTADEEP RAISES $7M TO POWER AI ENTERPRISE DECISION-MAKING

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CONTENTS 2nd QUARTER 2019

Microsoft Opens first Datacentres in Africa with General Availability of Microsoft Azure

Insurance’s Fresh Face: App-based Insurer Granadilla uses Technology to Inject New Energy into a Stale Industry

InstaDeep Raises $7M in Series A to Power Enterprise Decision-Making with AI

10 Kenyan Innovator Invents Gloves that Turn Sign Language into Speech 12 The Cortex Group Launch Cortex Ventures & Click-2-Pitch Challenge - Africa’s First Artificial Intelligence (AI) Only Focused Venture Capital Company 16 Intelligent Enterprises make the Experience Economy Click with Consumers 18 MIIA Appoints Nigerian Visionary & Thought Leader, John Kamara, as a Director 20 How Data Scientists can Fuel the Growth of Tech Startups in Africa 21 AI Expo Africa 2019 24 You’ve got mail! The Future of e-mail Automation 26

Microsoft, EY Joint Study unveils AI Maturity Levels

28 Marc1, World’s First IoT POS, will Bring Retailers up to Speed 30 “ ...but we are in Zimbabwe...” - Contextualising the A.I. Hype 34

IBM Launches its FREE Digital - Nation Africa Platform, powered by IBM Cloud and engaging its AI engine Watson

Machine Learning Bias - Who is Watching the Watchers?

AI Kenya - Democratizing Machine Intelligence

Oxford Insights’ mAI Readiness Report

IP Protection for AI Technology

Ethical AI: Building the African Bot

Africa Is Geared Up

Building 1 Million African AI Talents in 10 Years

Looking back on where AI Expo Africa was last year at this time, Nick and I were struck by the fact that our initial vision -- of building Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest AI and Data Science Community and then bringing all these talented people together in one venue to share their capabilities, products, services -- was an unknown proposition. Africa had never had an event like this, Africa had many talented people working in this field - but, could we find them and draw them together and then get the business-community to come and find out how AI would impact their operations. As it turns out, our vision was shared by many across the continent, and our inaugural event last year was a phenomenal success, thanks to this community buying into our grand vision. Thank you! And now, as our Community has grown rapidly since those early heady days to almost 3000, and we look back at the fact that we had 275 companies represented at AI Expo 2018, as delegates, sponsors and exhibitors (mainly C-Suite Executives looking to begin using AI in their operations), our vision is being realised. Join us this year on 4 & 5 September in Cape Town for the next installment of this thrilling African AI story.

PHEW - Its been a manic quarter as we prepared this edition of Synapse - our biggest yet! Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been to conferences in Niarobi, Mauritius, Durban & Geneva, meeting African and European thought leaders in AI and Data Science and listening to new innovations and communities seeking to make an impact in our region. The AI for Good Summit in Switzerland was a highlight and we have formed a partnership with the AI for Good movement and the ITU based in Geneva. With just under 3 months to go to AI Expo Africa, we are pleased to bring you our 4th edition of Synapse Magazine - we hope you enjoy it.

Roy Bannister - AI Media Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief

Nick Bradshaw - AI Media CoFounder & Community Director

BUILDING YOUR SOFTWARE DRIVEN BUSINESS Quick Facts

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MICROSOFT OPENS FIRST Datacentres in Africa with General

Availability of Microsoft Azure I am pleased to announce the general availability of Microsoft Azure from our new cloud regions in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa. Nedbank, Peace Parks Foundation, and eThekwini water are just a few of the organizations in Africa leveraging Microsoft cloud services today and will benefit from the increased computing resources and connectivity from our new cloud regions.

2ND QUARTER 2019

by Tom Keane Corporate Vice President, Azure Global, Microsoft Azure

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THE LAUNCH of these regions marks a major milestone for Microsoft as we open our first enterprise-grade datacenters in Africa, becoming the first global provider to deliver cloud services from datacenters on the continent. The new regions provide the latest example of our ongoing investment to help enable digital transformation and advance technologies such as AI, cloud, and edge computing across Africa. By delivering the comprehensive Microsoft Cloud — comprising Azure, Office 365, and Dynamics 365 — from datacenters in a given geography, we offer scalable, available, and resilient cloud services to companies and organizations while meeting data residency, security, and compliance needs. We have deep expertise in protecting data and empowering customers around the globe to meet extensive security and privacy requirements, including offering the broadest set of compliance certifications and attestations in the industry. With 54 regions announced worldwide, more than any other cloud provider, Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure will connect the new regions in South Africa with greater business opportunity, help accelerate new global investment, and improve access to cloud and Internet services across Africa. Accelerating digital transformation in Africa As we execute our expansion strategy, we consider the demand for locally delivered cloud services and the opportunity for digital transformation in the market. According to a study from IDC, spending on public cloud services in South Africa will nearly triple over the next five years, and the adoption of cloud services will generate nearly 112,000 net-new jobs in South Africa by the end of

2022. The increased utilization of public cloud services and the additional investments into private and hybrid cloud solutions will enable organizations in South Africa to focus on innovation and building digital businesses at scale. Nedbank, a leading African bank that services a diverse client base in South Africa and the rest of Africa, is pursuing a transformation strategy with the Azure cloud platform to enable its digital aspirations. Microsoft has had a long relationship with Nedbank which has culminated in enabling its migration to the cloud to help increase its competitiveness, agility, and customer focus. Azure also provides compliance technologies that assist Nedbank to increase data privacy and security which are primary concerns of its customers, regulators, and investors. Nedbank has adopted a hybrid and multi-vendor cloud strategy in which Microsoft is an integral partner. The Peace Parks Foundation, in collaboration with Cloudlogic, uses Azure to rapidly deploy infrastructure and solutions in far-flung protected spaces as well as to compute a considerable volume of data around at-risk species and wildlife in multiple conservation areas spanning thousands of kilometers. In efforts to sustain the delicate ecosystem and keystone species, such as the black and white rhinoceros, Peace Parks Foundation processes up to tens of thousands of images captured monthly on wildlife cameras in remote areas to monitor possible poaching activity. In the future, Peace Parks will leverage the new cloud infrastructure for radio over Internet protocol, a high-tech solution to a low-tech problem, to improve radio communication over remote and isolated areas. Continued on page 15

INSURANCE’S FRESH FACE:

App-based Insurer Granadilla uses Technology to Inject New Energy into a Stale Industry

2ND QUARTER 2019

It’s a story many of us can relate to.

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JONATHAN WALKER, the owner of a tech company in Johannesburg had his phone and laptop stolen. Essentially, his entire means to run his business was taken from him. But of course he was insured, so though an inconvenience, the theft was not the end of the world. Until it took his insurance company two months to replace these stolen items. The to-ing and fro-ing between himself and the insurance company, the ridiculous requirements to find the proof of purchase of items purchased years before, and the endless delays with delivering the replacement items were just the tip of the frustration iceberg for him. His story is not unusual. Many South Africans have been through some version of this with an insurance company. So, 41-year-old Walker came up with a plan to develop world-class technology that would tackle every pain point he experienced in his insurance – especially claims – journey and he would deliver it through a smart, intuitive and functional platform. The result… Granadilla, instant app-based insurance that adapts to a customer’s lifestyle. Digital technologies have been disrupting industries across the spectrum, from Airbnb in hospitality, to Uber in transport – so why should insurance be any different? A number of insurance start-ups, many of them tech-led, have entered the South African insurance market in 2018, shaking up an industry that is notoriously frustrating for consumers. A popular metric for measuring a brand’s performance is the Net Promoter Score (NPS), which gauges the likelihood that customers will recommend a brand to their family and friends (promoters) compared to customers who would actively discourage a relationship with the brand (detractors). The latest South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SAcsi) for Short Term Insurance Companies (2017) puts the shortterm industry average NPS at 29.9%. For many this signals an industry that is out of touch with its customers and ripe for disruption. “Granadilla aims to put the power back in our clients’ hands. By using an AI bot for cover and claims, we add efficiency into the process wherever possible. But when you do need a real, helpful human – we’re only a phone call away.

Jonathan Walker Founder of granadilla And you won’t be speaking to a call centre agent who won’t be able to help you. Because the bot element makes the more tedious processes more efficient, we can focus on ensuring that our customer-facing personnel are more empathetic and problem-solving oriented – that they are empowered to make decisions and to focus on the more human element rather than processes and procedures.” Granadilla combines top-tier technology, using AI, machine learning and chatbots with a customercentric business model, that allows for a great customer experience and dramatically reduced overheads, with the cover, claims and fraud detection functions largely being digitised. These savings are passed onto the customer to make Granadilla’s offering very price competitive. Savings are distributed in the form of lower premiums, and decreasing excesses over time. “It is important for us that our clients know that because we earn a flat fee, regardless of whether their claim is paid out or not, we have no incentive not to pay out a claim,” says Walker. “This is our mission – to bring transparency, fairness, helpfulness and humanity into an industry that has become so alienated from its clients. The irony is that we are using technology to do this.” Granadilla has launched with smartphone, tablet, laptop and wearable tech insurance. Many more products are being rolled out before the end of the year. In addition to replacing lost or stolen devices with new replacements, Granadilla’s smartphone insurance offering includes a “like-new” cover alternative. With this option clients can choose cover that provides them with a replacement device that is “pre-loved” - a good-as-new mobile that is delivered to your door with headphones, a charger and a 6 month warranty at a fraction of the price of a brand new replacement phone. The aim is to give customers a lower-price premium alternative, but also to appeal to the millennial market, by offering an environmentally friendly option to choose from. For more on Granadilla, visit their website on www. granadilla.ai or download the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. All policies are underwritten by Bryte Insurance Company Limited, an authorised FSP- 17703 ai

INSTADEEP RAISES $7M in Series A

to Power Enterprise Decision-Making with AI

London headquartered enterprise AI-startup, InstaDeep, has had a whirlwind of a story. A mere five years after its humble start in Tunis in 2014, with just two laptops and a bundle of enthusiasm, the company completes a $7 Million Series A funding round.

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THE INVESTMENT, led by pan-African private equity firm, AfricInvest, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst, a New York-based co-investment fund under Endeavor, is the largest publicly disclosed round for an AI-startup in Africa.

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Scalable product-driven platform The funding supports the development of a scalable product platform aimed at empowering enterprises with better decisionmaking using AI. The platform leverages deep reinforcement learning and other advanced machine learning Continued on page 10

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Karim Beguir Co-Founder, InstaDeep

Through our own cutting-edge research, we have developed a platform that goes beyond what we have seen in AI applications in the past. It can tackle challenging optimisation and automation challenges in dynamic and complex environments

â&#x20AC;?

InstaDeep delivers AI-powered decision-making systems for the Enterprise. With expertise in both machine intelligence research and concrete business deployments, we provide a competitive advantage to our customers in an AI-first world.

Developing actionable custom AI solutions

MANUFACTURING

MOBILITY LOGISTICS

www.instadeep.com

ENERGY

Kenyan Innovator Invents Gloves that Turn Sign Language into Speech A 25-year-old Kenyan innovator has earned global recognition with his invention of a smart hand gloves which are capable of converting sign language movements into audio speech.

ROY ALLELA, a technology evangelist, says the need to communicate with his 6-year-old niece, who was born deaf, inspired him to build the technology. Allela is among 16 young Africans who have been shortlisted by The Royal Academy of Engineering Africa Prize for inventors from six countries to receive funding, training and mentoring for projects intended to revolutionize sectors from agriculture and science to women’s health. The winner will be awarded Sh3.2 million (£25,000) while each of the three runners up will receive Sh1.2 million (£10,000). According to Allela, his niece encountered difficulties while communicating with members of her family since none of them is conversant with sign language. The smart gloves - dubbed Sign-IO - have flex sensors that

are placed on each finger and have the capacity to quantify the bend of a finger and process the letter being signed. Using Bluetooth, the gloves are connected to a mobile application, that Allela also developed, which then converts the sign into audio speech. ai

Roy Allela, African Technology Evangelist

Instadeep raises $7M in Series A

2ND QUARTER 2019

Continued from page 8

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technologies to bring AI to applications within an enterprise environment, allowing companies to optimise decisions and improve efficiency. “Through our own cutting-edge research, we have developed a platform that goes beyond what we have seen in AI applications in the past. It can tackle challenging optimisation and automation challenges in dynamic and complex environments such as mobility, logistics, manufacturing and energy. We already see that our product is providing real value and ROI for our clients”, says Co-Founder and CEO of InstaDeep, Karim Beguir. Advanced AI Opportunities The new platform marks a milestone for InstaDeep, which has

seen sustained growth and achievements including being one of the first ever African-founded AI companies to publish original AI research at NeurIPS 2018. Through its strategic partnership with AfricInvest, InstaDeep also aims to continue bringing advanced AI opportunities to Africa. “We want to grow an African AI success story and are on a mission to make AI accessible to all. By partnering with AfricInvest, we can leverage their operational expertise and strong business knowledge, and together accelerate talent and positive use of AI”, says Beguir. AfricInvest expects to meaningfully contribute to this development. “InstaDeep has managed to establish an excellent reputation for delivering solid and unique AI solutions, and we are excited to see what they can deliver next with our support,” says Khaled Ben Jilani, Senior Partner at AfricInvest. ai

ABOUT INSTADEEP Founded in Tunis in 2014 by Karim Beguir and Zohra Slim, InstaDeep is today an industry renowned AI firm delivering AI products and solutions for the enterprise, with headquarters in London, and offices in Paris, Tunis, Nairobi and Lagos. Powered by high-performance computing and outstanding research and development breakthroughs, InstaDeep utilises deep reinforcement learning to create AI systems that can optimise decision-making processes in real-life industrial environments. Our skilled in-house team of AI researchers, Machine Learning engineers, Hardware and Visualisation experts, harness the expertise to build end-to-end products that can tackle the most challenging optimisation and automation challenges, and provide real value and ROI to your business. InstaDeep offers a host of AI solutions, ranging from optimised patternrecognition, GPU-accelerated insights, to self-learning decision making systems. InstaDeep partners with organisations such as Deep Learning Indaba, Google Launchpad Accelerator, Facebook Dev Circles and Data Science Nigeria to support the rise of AI in Africa and across the globe. InstaDeep was named as one of the 20 global tech start-up companies to watch in 2017 by PCMag. The company has strong ties to Google with Karim being a Google Certified ML/AI Expert (Nov 2017), Zohra being a Google Developer Group Lead and other team members either GDG leads or Co-leads. www.instadeep.com The 32nd Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems. InstaDeep’s research papers: https://drive.google. com/file/d/0B_utB5Y8Y6D5cHprSkMtWFllMXNSZzl5TlNIRHYtLTlXR2xZ/view and https://www.ias.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/uploads/Team/JoniPajarinen/ RLPO2018_paper_20.pdf https://www.pcmag.com/feature/352129/mwc-2017-20-intriguing-global-startups-to-watch

CORTEX GROUP LAUNCH CORTEX VENTURES CLICK-2-PITCH CHALLENGE Africa’s First Artificial Intelligence (AI) Only Focused Venture Capital Company

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The Cortex Group is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) focused holding company building value in the IR4.0 Economy on a local, regional and global scale.

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ALREADY HOME to the successful Cortex Logic, an African Artificial Intelligence (AI) Software and Solutions company that helps businesses thrive in the Smart Technology Era, Cortex Ventures will be Africa’s one-stop-shop for AI focused start-ups and scale-ups looking for early or growth stage funding coupled to the opportunity to uniquely tap into the Cortex Group’s technical advisory, AI application development capabilities and co-working space.

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Dr Jacques Ludik, recipient of the AI Leader of the Year 2019 award and Cortex Group CEO & Founder said, “The AI play is so large that we decided to create a Venture Capital company that would only focus on companies, innovators and entrepreneurs working with AI based technologies that leverage data science, machine learning or deep learning in their stack. The world of artificial intelligence is seeing an explosion of new companies requiring investment and we intend

The AI play is so large that we decided to create a Venture Capital company that would only focus on companies, innovators and entrepreneurs working with AI based technologies - Dr Jacques Ludik - Founder & CEO Cortex Group

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ABOUT CORTEX GROUP The Cortex Group works across multiple business and industry domains to develop cutting edge intelligent systems and AI driven companies / platforms that leverage our unique mix of IP, access to funding, technology, people, partners and extensive community. The Cortex Group is made up of six brands each focusing on a different part of the AI Ecosystem namely; Asset Management, FinTech, Health, AI Products, AI focused VC Investments and a Portfolio of AI powered platform businesses that we have partnered with or invested in. The Cortex Ventures Click-2-Pitch Challenge is now open to any African based startup or scale-up focusing on AI who is seeking seed or growth stage funding. Learn more at www. cortexgroup.ai

Dr Jacques Ludik Cortex Group CEO & Founder

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who both sit on the Board of The Silicon Cape, South Africa stated, “Cortex Ventures will add significantly to the tech landscape in South Africa and more broadly Africa and we applaud what the team at the Cortex Group are doing to create inclusive, earlier stage funding opportunities in the Artificial Intelligence sector both locally and nationally.” Ludik concluded: “Africa can really benefit from leveraging cutting-edge 4th Industrial Revolution technologies and we as a community need to identify the gaps to create an AI pipeline for growth. Investment funding plays a big role in making this happen and we see collaboration with other VCs, incubators, accelerators, academia, industry and government as key to job creation and economic growth. Cortex Ventures will play an important role in this helping shape a better future for all.” Bradshaw concluded: “As a call to action, we invite AI focused start-ups and scale-ups to take part in our “Click2-Pitch Challenge.” It’s a very simple application process that we use to invite candidate companies to submit and join our program for investment and advice. It’s free to apply and all applications are reviewed by our investment team for the opportunity to pitch for investment. It does not matter if you are at pre-MVP, MVP, pre-revenue or post-revenue stage – we look at all proposals and advise accordingly. We are already screening deals and welcome all submissions from anywhere on the African continent.” ai

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There has never been a better time to be a tech entrepreneur in the AI space. - Dr Nick Bradshaw

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to fill that gap, especially those seeking early stage funding, which is traditionally seen as higher risk by more traditional VCs and investment entities such as Banks, Angel or Private Investors. Fellow entrepreneur and 20-year tech veteran, Dr Nick Bradshaw, who will be heading up Cortex Ventures stated, “There has never been a better time to be a tech entrepreneur in the AI space. Many of the things you could only dream of doing in this space two to three years ago are now possible and access to free or cost-effective resources via open source, APIs and Cloud providers such as Microsoft, AWS, Google and IBM is making this happen. As a VC focusing on both early and growth stage businesses we are supplementing the traditional support a VC can offer with unique access to AI developers and data scientists, product advisory services and a FREE coworking space so that we can be close to the companies and partners we are working with, ultimately making them succeed.” “Embracing AI in South Africa is critical as it brings immense opportunity and we anticipate it to be one of the most disruptive technologies in human history. Microsoft’s latest research into the adoption of AI in business shows that 37.8% of high-growth companies are actively implementing AI. It’s great to see new players like the Cortex Group and Cortex Ventures helping clients shift towards digital transformation and creating new opportunities for companies of tomorrow. As companies are relying more on AI, it is freeing up business leaders to focus on other activities. Realising the true benefit of AI is not simply about being fast adopters of innovative technology. Every company needs to think of itself as a digital company,” said Lillian Barnard, Managing Director at Microsoft South Africa. James Milne, Head of Investment Promotion Wesgro and Zimkhita Buwa, Chief Operating Officer at Britehouse,

Dr Nick Bradshaw CEO, Cortex Ventures

Microsoft opens first Datacentres in Africa Continued from page 4 eThekwini water is a unit of the eThekwini Municipality in Durban, South Africa responsible for the provision of water and sanitation services critical for sustaining life for 3.5 million residents in a 2,000+ square kilometer service area. In partnership with Cloudlogic, eThekwini water is using Azure for critical application monitoring as well as site failover and disaster recovery initiatives. It’ll benefit from locally delivered cloud services to improve performance of real-time reporting and monitoring of water infrastructure 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Empowering people and organizations across Africa Microsoft has long been working to support organizations, local start ups, and NGOs in Africa that have the potential to solve some of the biggest problems facing humanity, such as the scarcity of water and food as well as economic and environmental sustainability. In 2013, we launched Microsoft 4Afrika investing in start-ups, partners, small-to-medium enterprises, governments, and youth on the African continent. The program is focused on delivering affordable access to the Internet, developing skilled workforces, and investing in local technology solutions. Africa has the potential to help lead the technology revolution; therefore, Microsoft is empowering organizations and people to drive economic development, inclusive growth, and digital transformation. 4Afrika is Microsoft’s business and market development engine on the continent, which is preparing the market to embrace cloud technology. We have also extended FarmBeats, an end-to-

The new cloud regions in Africa are connected with Microsoft’s other regions via our global network, one of the largest and most innovative on the planet, which spans more than 100,000 miles (161,000 kilometers) of terrestrial fibre and sub-sea cable systems to deliver services to customers.

end approach to help farmers benefit from technology innovation at the edge, to Nairobi, Kenya. FarmBeats strives to enable data-driven farming as we believe that data, coupled with the farmer’s knowledge and intuition about his or her farm, can help increase farm productivity and reduce costs. The new effort in Nairobi will be focused on addressing the specific challenges of farming in Africa with the intent of expanding to other African countries. Bringing the complete cloud to Africa The new cloud regions in Africa are connected with Microsoft’s other regions via our global network, one of the largest and most innovative on the planet, which spans more than 100,000 miles (161,000 kilometers) of terrestrial fiber and subsea cable systems to deliver services to customers. We’ve expanded our network footprint to reach Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa and will be expanding to Angola. Microsoft is bringing the global cloud closer to home for African organizations and citizens through our trans-Arabian paths between India and Europe, as well as our trans-Atlantic systems including Marea, the highest-capacity cable to ever cross the Atlantic. Azure is the first of Microsoft’s intelligent cloud services to be delivered from the new datacenters in South Africa. Office 365, Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity solution, is anticipated to be available by the third quarter of calendar year 2019, and Dynamics 365, the next generation of intelligent business applications, is anticipated for the fourth quarter. Follow the links embedded in the article to learn more about the new cloud services in South Africa and the availability of Azure regions and services across the globe. ai

Intelligent Enterprises make the Experience Economy Click with Consumers

Today’s consumers are more informed than ever about their purchasing decisions. They are constantly connected, constantly searching for information, constantly sharing their brand experiences on social media and constantly demanding that their needs are instantly gratified. There is immense pressure on brands to meet rising consumer expectations.

2ND QUARTER 2019

By Rudeon Snell, Director: Intelligent Solutions at SAP Southern EMEA

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CUSTOMER LOYALTY is a fickle thing at the best of times, and they’re more willing - and more able than ever - to vote with their money when they have a poor experience. Simply having the product or service is not enough; it is no longer even a differentiator. Consumers want a positive and personalised experience to sweeten the deal. They want to feel like brands are listening to them, that they understand them. This has necessitated a shift in value delivery. As a business, you cannot rely purely on only your product or service any longer. Let’s say you are looking to buy a wedding gown and you are standing in front of two stores, both selling quality gowns. The first one is a simple store with gowns hanging on rails. The prices are cheap, so you could go in, choose a dress, and pay for it and leave, job done. The second store is much more expensive than the first, but it is beautifully decorated, there are uniformed sales assistants ushering you around and pampering you with champagne and delicacies, music is playing, there’s free WiFi, and best of all, they know you by name and even know your personal preferences. Which one would you choose? Some people might say the first store, but research shows that more and more people are choosing the second store – where the experience is superior. Why experiences matter Ever since the term Experience Economy was first coined by Pine and Gilmore roughly 20 years ago, researchers have explored how consumer buying decisions are increasingly

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Organisations that want to survive and thrive in the new intelligent Experience Economy will need to enter uncharted waters to radically reimagine the very concept of customer experience.

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determined by experiences. Pine and Gilmore make the case that in today’s economy, consumer buying decisions are greatly influenced by the quality of the experience they receive from the brand, and not just by the brand’s product or service. The Experience Economy was birthed out of the increased desire of digitally native Millennials, who now form the largest purchasing group, to spend their money on experiences they can share on social media platforms rather than products and services. This has even led to the FOMO (fear of missing out) phenomenon taking off, spawning new job types such as influencers who command cult-like followings and are able to incite action by merely lending their support to brands. One of the biggest challenges brands have had is differentiation and uniqueness in their value proposition. Traditionally, businesses primarily derived economic value from extracting commodities that were basically undifferentiated and could easily be copied. Thereafter, the focus shifted to developing products, which initially provided some form of competitive position, but with the advent of technology, was not sustainable as a differentiator in the long term. The next wave to hit was the delivery of services using developed products. Today, in order to differentiate and present a unique value proposition to consumers, companies are focusing their efforts on staging memorable experiences. A little bit of magic Disney was one of the first to truly provide customers with a unique experience, mainly through their Disneyland resorts. When other brands caught wind of the value that these experiences hold in the minds and hearts of consumers, they quickly jumped on the bandwagon. Today most types of businesses have realised that the value needle has shifted. Customers are willing to pay more for experiences instead of just products and services because experiences are memorable and when shared through social media builds valuable social capital. One example of this can be seen with traditional

Build experiences with Intelligence With our environments gradually becoming more intelligent, mostly thanks to advances in technology, businesses are facing a tough question: how do they win in the experience economy? How can they accelerate value delivery to their customers, and give them memorable experiences in this exponentially changing world? The answer to these questions lies in becoming an Intelligent Enterprise, which gives businesses an edge in the Experience Economy and helps accelerate time to value. The Intelligent Enterprise is also what enables organisations to deliver unique and differentiated experiences to customers while fostering trusted relationships. This notion of the Intelligent Enterprise focuses on embedding intelligence into every part of the enterprise, much like electricity today is embedded in every part of our homes. Intelligence is most valuable to a business when it is embedded directly into the processes of that business. Those processes are then integrated, leveraging a consistent, trusted source of data across the enterprise. With artificial intelligence (AI), businesses can then extend their capabilities in ways that were once unimaginable; and it is through technologies like AI that businesses can truly deliver a holistic customer experience that intelligently connects all enterprise processes and business, operational

ABOUT SAP

and experience management data to provide an exceptional, hyper-individualised customer interaction that is not soon forgotten. AI will give birth to the Intelligent Experience Economy. In the Age of Intelligent Experience, companies effectively use exponential technologies such as AI, Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud Computing, Mobility, Augmented and Virtual Reality while leveraging a unified, trusted source of data with intelligence infused business processes. This will enable them to completely reimagine their customer experiences, adding value in unique, differentiated ways. By going beyond convenient, accessible and standardised experiences to hyper-individualised, intelligence infused, pre-emptive and prescriptive customer interactions, businesses will increase the value they can add to the customer while also accelerating the speed with which they bring these intelligent experiences to market. To successfully deliver on the promise of the Intelligent Experience Economy, businesses must ensure that value is united around a customer vision where experience is embedded in the value delivery of the brand. By embracing the value and capability offered by the Intelligent Enterprise, the entire business, from the back-office to the frontline can bring a differentiated customer experience to life. The consumer-driven growth revolution will require all businesses to not only change their thinking but also adopt a new approach – one that puts the customer and their experience, not sales, at the centre of the relationship. This shift will require businesses to be bold in adopting new approaches, processes and technologies to satisfy the expectations of digitally native consumers. Organisations that want to survive and thrive in the new intelligent Experience Economy will need to enter uncharted waters to radically reimagine the very concept of customer experience. ai

As the cloud company powered by SAP HANA®, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, helping companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world’s transaction revenue touches an SAP® system. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables more than 425,000 business and public customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com

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bookstores, which have seen a massive decline in sales and have had to embrace the notion of providing experiences to attract and retain customers. In Japan, maid cafes catering to Anime lovers offer their customers the ability to be served by servers dressed in frilly maid outfits acting like anime characters. The examples of businesses shifting focus to optimising experiences are increasing but the shift is simply not happening quick enough.

2ND QUARTER 2019

Research shows that more and more people are choosing shopping experiences where the experience is superior, offering benefits like personalised services.

MIIA APPOINTS

Nigerian Visionary & Thought Leader, John Kamara, as a Director The Machine Intelligence Institute of Africa (MIIA) is a non-profit organization founded by Dr Jacques Ludik in 2016 – the same year in which he founded Cortex Logic. The mission of MIIA is to help establish and foster key relationships and partnerships within the Artificial Intelligence ‘Network of Excellence’ – thereby creating a strong, innovative Machine Intelligence and Data Science community and dialogue in Africa.

2ND QUARTER 2019

MIIA IS delighted to announce the appointment of John Kamara as its newest director – a Nigerian thought leader and visionary, who will help promote the value of Machine Learning and Data Science application in Africa. With vast experience in new markets and verticals across multiple sectors, he’s dubbed an expert in various technological arenas, including e-commerce, internet solutions, digital applications, and financial payment

solutions. He will share 20 years’ leadership experience and invaluable knowledge on technologies, as well as market entry and start-up growth strategies – having worked with and within multiple companies and industries, including technology and gaming start-ups in Europe, Asia, Caribbean, and Africa. Dr Jacques Ludik, Founder and President of MIIA (Recipient of the AI Leader of the Year 2019 Award, as well as Founder, Group CEO and Managing Director of Cortex Logic) said, “We are very pleased to have Mr Kamara join the MIIA team at this critical time in the rise and global awareness of the tech ecosystem in Africa. There’s still so much work to be done, especially in the Data Science space – from education and institutionalization, to the creation of leverage platforms within the AI value chain. Mr Kamara will serve as an invaluable addition given his track record, global experience, and networks. He also contributes incredible knowledge and experience, which will play a vital part in MIIAs ambitious plans to grow Machine Learning and Data Science in Africa at a rapid and exponential pace.”

Dr Ludik continued, “An enriching and collaborative dialogue, within the Artificial Intelligence ‘Network of Excellence’, is currently taking place and building a solid foundation for the research and innovation agenda in Africa. Progress on this agenda will depend on the collective wisdom and action of multiple stakeholders within the AI arena. Africa can truly benefit from leveraging cutting-edge Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies and connecting with like-minded individuals and entities along the way.” Dr Nick Bradshaw, Cortex Logic Group CMO and Director at MIIA added, “We, as a community, need to collectively identify gaps in the African AI Ecosystem in order to create an AI pipeline for growth – all of which starts with creating platforms for sustainable relationships to be developed between academia, investment, government, entrepreneurs, and other key industry players. To this end, MIIA is not only onboarding industry experts to drive our global vision, but we’ve also recently launched www. AIAfrica.wiki – a comprehensive country-level review of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning resources, people and projects in Africa.” Mr Kamara added, “I am very pleased to join this remarkable institution that is set to integrate and enhance Machine Learning and Data Science within the continent’s tech-space. These two elements will play a crucial role as an increase in Machine Learning usage, in multiple industries, will act as a catalyst that will push Data Science, increase relevance and, in parallel, enhance high-value predictions that can guide better decision-making and smart actions in real-time, without human intervention – helping Africa solve some of its critical social and economic problems. I look forward to serving as a bridge in advising and leveraging governments, higher learning institutions, businesses and entrepreneurs in the investment, usage and application of Machine Learning and Big Data in Africa.” MIIA is currently on an active and dedicated drive to access funding to propel its mission and projects in support of Africa’s sustainable development goals and to help create the needed social economic impact on the continent. ai

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18 ABOUT MIIA

The Machine Intelligence Institute of Africa (MIIA) is a non-profit organization founded by Dr Jacques Ludik in 2016 – the same year in which he founded Cortex Logic. The mission of MIIA is to help establish and foster key relationships and partnerships within the Artificial Intelligence ‘Network of Excellence’ – thereby creating a strong, innovative Machine Intelligence and Data Science community and dialogue in Africa. MIIA aims to transform Africa and shape the African AI Ecosystem by bringing together and networking with the critical mass of resources, by promoting and sponsoring key learning activities, as well as through the strengthening of scientific and technological excellence, mentoring and collaboration on the continent. Through partnerships with local and global government, businesses, start-up incubators, universities, research organizations, and other non-profit organizations, MIIA helps mold the future of Machine Intelligence and Data Science research and applications in Africa.

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How Data Scientists can Fuel the

Growth of Tech Startups in Africa In the olden days, rulers used statistics based on population census, primarily to procure food for citizens and prepare the army for security. Ever since, censuses have been used by governments across the world for various purposes; ranging from the number of hospitals needed to be built to the number of jobs needed to be created for the graduates joining the labor force in the next decade. Evidently, arriving at the answers to the aforementioned questions and many more requires that we get our data right.

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TODAY, TECH startups are seeing the availability of large volumes of data as a source of competitive advantage. In an increasingly complex and connected world, the ability of an organization to collect, manage, and analyze huge amounts of data effectively separates the winners from the runnersup. To make sense out of such data, the need arose for a new skill set– a profile that included business acumen, customer/user insights, analytics, programming, machine learning skills and more. This led to the emergence of the data scientist role; a person who combines sound business understanding, data handling, programming, and data visualization skills to drive better business results. Today, the bedrock of innovation across Africa is the digitization of products and services. As a result, implementing a mobile and digital strategy into startups enables a better understanding of one’s business and customer requirements. African tech startups are in a strong position to benefit from this as they have long been mobile-first marketplaces, seeing a penetration of over 80%. For example, a Nairobi-based start-up, Twiga Foods uses big data analytics and a mobile platform linked to M-Pesa (mobile money platform by Safaricom) to develop the farmto-market supply chains for bananas in Kenya. They are in the process of replicating the same for fruit and vegetables across the continent. With our massive pools of incredibly talented youth, we are now in a position to witness similar innovations in other impact-driven sectors such as Healthcare, E-Commerce, and Financial Services. Healthcare Globally, data is being used to get better drugs to market faster and to personalize treatment plans. It used to take months to be able to say whether a particular treatment for cancer was working– wasting precious time which might otherwise have been used to save a patient’s life. Now using analytics, we can predict that treatment effectiveness within days. Most healthcare startups in Africa have a significant amount of healthcare data; including patients’ history, symptoms, pathology results, and radiology results.

Jeph Acheampong Founder of Blossom Academy

In an increasingly complex and connected world, the ability of an organization to collect, manage, and analyze huge amounts of data effectively separates the winners from the runners-up.

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Effective analysis of this data will not only save time but also compensate for the shortage of medical personnel, especially in the rural and remote regions. Other health or environmental emergencies such as major accidents, earthquakes, and floods can also be detected through analysis of mobile phone and internet data, which potentially saves lives of citizens.

E-Commerce The global big data analytics in retail market was valued at $2.85 billion in 2017, and is projected to reach a value of $9.01 billion by the end of 2023. For businesses to survive in the digital age, they need to determine consumer preferences and future demand, based on past demand trends, in order to target their advertisements and products. According to the World Economic Forum, more than 70% of Africans are under age 30, with those aged 16-34 accounting for 65% of the entire continent’s billion-dollar consumer spending. With Africa being the fastest growing continent with smart-phone use yet constrained consumer wallets, advertisers are obsessing on how best to reach millennials. By 2020, the youth will dominate Africa’s $1.3 trillion consumer spending. For businesses to capture the greater part of the market share, implementing a data analytics strategy is essential for designing new products, improving the sales turnover, improving output, and sustaining employment. Continued on page 22

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How Data Scientists can Fuel the Growth of Tech Startups in Africa Continued from page 20 Financial Services Financial service providers are also starting to leverage their customer data to provide additional value-added services through the likes of rewards and loyalty programs. The analysis and prediction of transaction volumes is key to enhancing product value for customers. Data scientists are enabling better classification of payment records and thus allowing banks to tailor additional services to their clients’ needs. In 2014, a staggering 66% of Sub-Saharan Africans did not have a bank account. As a result, mobile money became a thriving alternative, with the highest levels of penetration in the world. In 2015, the market generated $656m in revenue and in the next four years this is expected to double to $1.3 billion. It’s evident that Africa is a true leader in mobile banking payments, which means large volumes of data are consistently being collected by telecommunications and fintech companies. With better use of customer data, financial service startups can better provide targeted financial products to underserved clients, based on client profiles and purchasing power, thus reducing their own risk exposure while supporting economic activities and growth. Any tech startup that can effectively analyze its data will have a massive advantage over its competitors as it will be able to adapt to changing trends and customer demands faster than those that do not have the same insights. Realizing that there is an imperative need for the effective analysis of data, Blossom Academy was launched to provide an innovative hyperpersonalized talent acquisition solution for Africa’s best tech startups. We recruit, develop and deploy industry-specific data science talent, enabling our employer partners to succeed and grow. African tech startups, across all sectors, can now be more productive and efficient by harnessing data. At the same time, they gain access to a global marketplace of billions of people and millions of companies, and have the opportunity to attract international investment and join international supply chains. ai

Jeph Acheampong is the founder of Blossom Academy, Ghana’s 1st Data Science Academy. Blossom Academy empowers top talent from West Africa to become data-driven leaders, and leverage their skills in the global economy.

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Email is currently and will for the medium term be the dominant form of communication for business.

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APPROXIMATELY 270 Billion emails are sent every day around the world with 3.7 Billion email users, surpassing messaging by a factor of three and eclipsing telephony by a factor of twenty. Traditionally, IT solution vendors have focussed primarily on outbound email marketing and the automation & optimisation thereof. However with the coming of age of Natural Language Understanding (NLU) coupled to a host of other supporting AI technologies e.g. Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR), etc. a significant opportunity has arisen in decoding unstructured information (natural language) in an organisation’s inbound mail centres around sales, servicing, logistics, finance and beyond. Benefits include significantly decreased operational costs, increased customer and employee satisfaction, vastly reduced processing times, improved quality, 24X7 availability, and the freeing up of resources from mundane repetitive tasks. Organisations are now able to automatically determine the intent of a customer’s email request, read any attached documents (including printed text, handwriting, etc.), identify attachment types (e.g. identity documents, company specific forms. etc.) perform translation, extract key attributes, determine the

LIGHTBLUE COGNITIVE SOLUTIONS

sentiment and then based on business rules route prioritise the work and perform the back-end transaction automatically without any human involvement. The solution has a host of features and can automatically respond to the customer confirming a context specific receipt notification and asking the customer to validate the information provided is correct. It can perform completion checks (e.g. you forgot to include a proof of address) as well as identify follow ups - so as not to create duplicate work items. Finally, with AI traditional challenges around SPAM, Phishing and explicit content (images and text) can be simply removed from your organisations inboxes – not to mention autoforwarding of those emails meant for the department down the hall and the myriad of auto-responses received from other systems. NLU “the brain” brings Artificial intelligence to Robotic Process Automation “the arms & legs” which when combined provides for Intelligent Automation by deducing human language in the form of unstructured text and converting it to structured information for back end processing. Join us at AI Expo Africa 2019 to hear about our experience in implementing email automation solutions at the largest life and short-term insurers in South Africa! ai

by Alessandro Vignazia Founder, LightBlue Cognitive Solutions

ALESSANDRO VIGNAZIA Alessandro has over twenty-two years Information Technology consulting experience in leading organisations across the Middle East & Africa. He began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting and subsequently held senior positions at IBM Consulting, where he held several positions namely the IBM Consulting Artificial Intelligence lead for Middle East & Africa and the IBM Consulting Analytics, Optimisation & Information Management Lead for Southern Africa. He is currently the Founding Director of Lightblue Cognitive Solutions an Artificial Intelligence boutique consultancy and software solutions IT Start-up. Alessandro is passionate about new technologies such as intelligent automation and its real-world application to achieve economic and social benefit.

Lightblue Cognitive Solutions is a specialised consultancy & software development house focussed on intelligent automation. We provide businesses with a clear path on how to use artificial intelligence and robotic process automation to reduce and ultimately eliminate repetitive tasks as well as enabling new business models & processes through innovation. Our focus is partnering with our clients to understand where the biggest business opportunity is and then accelerating them on their intelligent automation journey by leveraging our expertise and proprietary solution components to create custom solutions which address large portions of their value chains. We have built Cognitive Analytics, Chatbots, Email Automation (inbound & outbound) and Contact Centre Agent Assistant solutions and we have exciting engagements on the go in the speech recognition domain for South African accents, LiveChat (LivePerson) as well as data science to train predictive models. We are official IBM Watson and LivePerson business partners and also work closely with Google, AWS and Microsoft. Our current clients include: Santam, Sanlam, Visa & Truworths.

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MICROSOFT, EY JOINT STUDY UNVEILS AI maturity levels amongst UAE businesses including next steps to accelerate Digital Transformation

2ND QUARTER 2019

A report commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by EY says the UAE has seen the second highest AI investment over the past decade, more than USD $2.15 billion One in five companies in the country consider AI as their top digital priority 94% of C-suite leadership consider ‘AI strategy’ as an important topic and 35% of non-managerial staff are actively having AI discussions

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NEW RESEARCH shows the state of AI within businesses across the UAE is expected to improve dramatically over the next three years, particularly as a growing number of executives look to AI to drive their digital agendas. Already, 18% of businesses in the country consider AI their most important digital priority. This is according to the AI Maturity Report in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) Click here – a new study commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by EY. Much of the UAE’s progress in elevating the AI agenda is a direct result of leaders across the country recognising that the technology is quickly becoming a key differentiator across all sectors and actively pursuing their AI agendas accordingly. In fact, 94% of companies in the UAE report involvement in AI at executive management level – the highest percentage of any surveyed country in MEA. “When we examine companies with high AI maturity, it’s clear that the technology is driven directly by the CEOs themselves. This high level of involvement typically results in greater investment in AI, broader adopti on and a greater

A healthy attitude towards new technology The UAE’s open culture around AI is another highly positive indicator of the health of the technology within the country. 94% of UAE companies have ‘AI Strategy’ as an important topic at C-suite level and a significant 35% of companies say AI discussions are filtering down from top management right the way through to nonmanagerial levels. As a result, employees in the UAE are less afraid of losing their jobs to AI than employees in other countries. In fact, they embrace opportunities to participate in skills training and pilot programmes. Building a solid foundation for AI Though UAE executives are providing clear direction for the development of AI within the country, converting this vision to actionable output remains a challenge. This is largely because many UAE companies are still building the foundations needed to develop AI maturity, including suitable infrastructure and good quality data. “The biggest problem to date with AI is that it isn’t

Customers a key focus UAE companies are, in general, heavily focused on customer engagement when it comes to AI. The use of chatbots in the marketing space has become common, largely because they enhance the customer experience, ultimately demonstrating obvious value to management. As with most other businesses across the region, UAE respondents expect AI to deliver greater operational efficiencies, drive down costs and, most importantly, enable them to be more competitive. Specifically, companies within the Emirates view prediction (76%) and automation (76%) as the most relevant applications of AI for their businesses. Despite such challenges, 65% of UAE companies rate themselves as highly to very competent when it comes to drawing on external alliances to strengthen their AI capabilities. Ultimately, this enables executives to kickstart AI programmes, leveraging external competencies while growing their internal capacity. To download the full report on the UAE’s AI outlook, click here ai

2ND QUARTER 2019

A top regional investor It’s not surprising that the UAE is the second highest regional investor in AI over the past ten years, investing $2.15 billion in total. The bulk of this investment went towards social media and Internet of Things (IoT) transactions. This was followed by notable spend across a further eight technologies, including smart mobile, gamification, and machine learning. In fact, respondents ranked machine learning as the most useful AI technology, with primary emphasis placed on decision support solutions. This was followed by smart robotics and text analysis, where customer interactions were the key focus.

always right – AI has given us the ability to make datadriven predictions, decisions and actions faster than ever before, but it is only as effective as the data and algorithms it relies on,” says Steve Plimsoll, MENA Data & Intelligence advisory leader, EY. “So, while it’s great to see local companies investing in adoption of AI, the focus must be on building trust – that the underlying data and algorithms are reliable, the models ethical and the predictions are measurable and as accurate as they can be. Without trust, AI will be never fully move from fiction into reality.” “Executives across the UAE are already investing significantly in the training and education of their employees. At the same time, businesses are engaging with external parties to promote skills transfer and making a concerted effort to identify relevant use cases for AI,” continues Microsoft’s Hashish. “In the past, organisations have undervalued the importance of their data assets, meaning their competencies around structured data governance and data stewardship are still developing. And it will take time for businesses to start producing large volumes of high quality, wellmanaged data. “The country has made significant progress in elevating its AI agenda over the past three years, and all indicators point to the near future bringing significant improvement in the application of the technology as well.”

27 SYNAPSE

number of successful implementations,” says Sayed Hashish, regional general manager at Microsoft Gulf. Leadership capability in the UAE is also rated high when compared with other countries in MEA. While 64% of respondents believe they have moderate, little or no AI leadership competency, 24% of executives in the UAE rated themselves as highly competent, with another 46 percent indicating they are either competent or very competent. Most companies still consider themselves to be in the planned phase of AI maturity, meaning AI has not yet been put to active use. On the opposite end of the spectrum, just 8% of businesses perceive themselves as advanced in their application of AI.

Marc1, World’s First IoT POS, will Bring Retailers up to Speed

2ND QUARTER 2019

A2D24’s revolutionary POS platform bags coveted Cisco award

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$108 BILLION - That’s how much the global point-of-sales (POS) terminals market is expected to be worth by 2025, according to the latest research. But despite being a crucial cog in the retail machine and the market experiencing rapid growth amid rising demand, advancements in POS technology have been few and far between over the past 30 years. Seeking to provide homegrown solutions to African problems, South African tech firm A2D24 looked to bring lagging traditional retailers up to speed with their online counterparts by harnessing the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence to produce an integrated POS platform. It has since seen retailers in South Africa and Botswana realise a revenue boost of up to 15%, as well as significant decreases in operational costs. Designed and developed over just four months, the award-winning Marc1, the world’s first Internet of Things (IoT) POS platform, is a truly epoch-making product. And the industry seems to agree. The Marc1 scooped tech leader Cisco’s prestigious Circle of Excellence award at a recent event in Sun City, beating out a strong field of contenders. This came just a year after the platform took home the coveted title of MTN IoT Commercial Device of the Year. “The technology has the potential to revolutionise retail as we know it. We are excited and eager to put this disruptive technology in the hands of retailers in South Africa and across the continent,” said an elated Muhammad Simjee, cofounder and CEO of A2D24. The robust, low-cost Marc1 platform works by tracking wifi signals from passers-by and potential customers’ smartphones near retail locations. These are picked up by an in-store IoT device able to measure distance to device, dwell time as well as uniquely identifying each device to capture loyalty information. This re-imagining of the POS platform adds value to the transaction point and opens up

opportunities for upselling and impulse buys. It also grants traditional retailers access to tools previously only available to their online peers, including insights into customer behaviour, data-driven prompts for sales staff, live updates to marketing material, personalised loyalty experiences and real-time customer conversion funnel tracking. The Marc1 has unlocked significant revenue opportunities by transforming this “dumb” transaction point. And the revolution won’t stop there, as A2D24 looks to establish the platform as an industry pace-setter, with additional features coming online soon. “Our vision is to become the ultimate sales platform for physical retailers, integrating payments and advanced features to be accessible not to just the big players, but to retailers of all sizes. Our feature set wont just be a luxury item but will soon become the industry norm” explains Marc1 Executive Manager Tauhir Jardine. For more information, or to explore applications within your business environment, visit: marc1.io or email: info@ marc1.io ai

Use AI to create an original piece of Artwork and Music to win a free trip to AI Expo in Cape Town valued at

$3000

In recent years, art-creating AI has pushed the boundaries of how we define art. This competition challenges the African AI & Data Science community on Zindi to create original artwork and music track(s) using AI. The challenge is to create an original piece of artwork or music that leverages AI. There will be one winner for each category (visual art & music) and winners must be citizens of an African country and must be living in Africa. Awards will be presented to the winner at the exclusive AI Expo Africa VIP event on the opening night of AI Expo Africa in Cape Town South Africa on 3 September 2019 – with the music track(s) being played during the event and art work on display. Both works will be auctioned during the exclusive networking / drinks reception event 5 September with proceeds going (50%) to the artist and (50%) to the event charity “Starting Chance.” This competition is sponsored by The AI Media Group, creators of AI Expo Africa, and Cortex Ventures, Africa’s first AI only focused VC company.

Enter Competition Here: https://zindi.africa/competitions/ai-art

About The AI Media Group (aimediagroup.co.za) The AI Media Group are the creators of AI Expo Africa and believe the tech media landscape is changing. We are leveraging new formats and platforms to communicate the 4IR opportunity in the African AI & Data Science landscape for entrepreneurs, investors, business leaders, governments and corporations. We make our content accessible across the whole of Africa by removing price and knowledge barriers to content, creating new event formats and sharing the fastest growing business opportunities across the continent to create an AI powered future for Africa. About Cortex Ventures (cortexgroup.ai) Cortex Ventures is a business unit of the Cortex Group. The Cortex Group Is An Artificial Intelligence (AI) Focused Holding Company Building Value In The IR4.0 Economy On A Local, Regional And Global Scale. Cortex Ventures is an AI-focused seed to growth stage Venture Capital Company that develops, incubates and invests in entrepreneurial businesses within African AI Communities to help accelerate their growth and international expansion

“ ...but we are in Zimbabwe... ” Contextualising the A.I. Hype

2ND QUARTER 2019

Recently I had the opportunity to present at Steward Bank in Harare, Zimbabwe about Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Deep Learning.

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THE DEVELOPED world is awash with examples where these new technologies have been successfully implemented but I was presenting to an analytics team based in Zimbabwe, so the expected comment from the team was: “...but we are in Zimbabwe...” bringing me to the realizaton that contextualizing the hype around these new technologies is fundamental to their implementation on our continent. Uses of A.I. in developing countries There are some problems which are more prevalent in developing countries than the first world. This means there is a lot of catching up we have to do. Technologies like A.I. can help us leapfrog some of those steps in important industries/ sectors if we are to develop Africa. Before I get into what we stand to gain, I do concede the fact that these technologies are disruptive for jobs many of us are employed in. For example, in the Philippines, call centers employ 1.2m people and account for about 8% of national income. A.I. technologies are advancing at such a pace that soon we will be interacting with automated agents instead of warm bodies when we call help centers (cue Google Duplex). What our governments need to weigh is whether these disruptions are worth the positives we will get in return.

by Houston Muzamhindo Analytics and Data Science at Investec | TEDxJohannesburg 1830 Fellow | Founder at IQmates

Use case 1: Education One major problem African countries face is the lack of experienced teachers. This is huge issue even in well-resourced countries like South Africa. Tools are being developed that help teachers track how users interact with the content, be it videos, practice questions etc, and the software automatically creates a learning plan for the student. These A.I. tools personalise education - they create learning paths which are tailored to each child’s strengths and weaknesses. If a child struggles with 2 + 2, maybe it is because they have not understood 1 + 1 yet and these tools are able to pick this up and direct the child to the start with the right sections. One might think this requires some fancy technologies only the first world countries can afford but it turns out, all these very cheap Android phones coming out of China into Africa are very much capable of being educational tools when apps are coupled with the right A.I. algorithms. Some places in Africa are still too remote and students have to walk many kilometers to get to school. The South African government gave an ultimatum to service providers Vodacom, MTN and Cell C that each network’s services has to cover the whole country by 2020, either by improving their services or opening their networks to MVNOs. It is not difficult to see how a combination of improving mobile network services (and hopefully cheaper data plans) and increased influx of cheap and capable/powerful smartphones will make it possible to build the right apps with A.I. backed capabilities that will help us deliver the best education even in the remotest parts of Africa. Even without network connectivity, Google’s Tensorflow Lite, is being developed to allow for “on mobile device machine learning” without the need to connect to the cloud. Very useful capability for remote areas, don’t you agree? Continued on page 32

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“ ...but we are in Zimbabwe...” - Contextualising the A.I. Hype Continued from page 30

2ND QUARTER 2019

Use case 2: Healthcare The remoteness of some African villages presents some very complex healthcare challenges. It is sometimes difficult to deliver drugs to areas where they are needed the most. This is where A.I. backed technologies can be useful. In Rwanda, a startup called Zipline is delivering medical supplies using drones and they claim they have reduced waste of donated blood by 95%! Some A.I. algorithms predict the spread of outbreaks such as Ebola, giving healthcare practitioners ways to prepare counter measures. Other tools are allowing nurses

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and lesser-trained medical practitioners to diagnose patients in remote areas through the use of A.I. backed mobile apps. One example is Retina.AI by Nigerian doctor Dr. Stephen Odaibo. It is a mobile app being developed with the aim of “using artificial intelligence to improve retina care.” All these A.I. backed medical tools allow us to diagnose medical conditions at a fraction of the cost, which is definitely beneficial to emerging markets. There is a promising algorithm being used to diagnose Malaria, one of Africa’s deadliest diseases, at low cost and higher accuracy than standard methods. Although not developed on the continent, Ginger.io is a mobile app that aims to provide 24/7 care to people with depression, stress, and anxiety. “Built using state-of-the-art predictive models developed by MIT scientists and engineers, Ginger.io uses a combination of smartphone technology and data analytics to deliver personalized and affordable healthcare.” Won’t Africa and emerging markets benefit from these A.I. backed technologies, considering the challenges we face which make healthcare delivery expensive if not impossible? Use case 3: Agriculture Many African countries are dependent on agriculture; Zimbabwe, where I did the presentation, was once called the “bread basket of Africa”. But this activity is dependent on many factors including access to capital, right climate, population dynamics, labour, and changes in soil

composition. There are A.I. systems being developed to maximise each of these resources. Predictive models have been developed to assess the impact of environmental factors on the yield of different crops, thereby allowing the farmer to plant just the right type of crop to maximise his or her return. Startups are making use of drones and computer vision to keep track of how crops are growing by taking pictures and analysing the size of the leaves, and heights of the crops so as to deploy remedial resources in sections where crops are failing, again maximising yield. A company called Blue River has developed a system that employs computer vision where, if their “See and Spray” robot sees weeds, it automatically sprays herbicides. This robot can work 24/7 with no need for human intervention, allowing the farmer to shift his labour resources from tilling the land to other more productive aspects of farming. In due time, I will write a post about a startup I am researching which employs some machine learning in agriculture for anyone to implement (stay tuned!). With Africa’s dependence on agriculture, I have no doubt these A.I. backed technologies will definitely benefit our economies. Conclusion For this post not to be a long read, I will write about other industries in upcoming posts, for example making use of A.I. backed solutions to bank the millions of unbanked Africans. One very important point though is, if there is this much to gain from seriously looking at these technologies, what are our governments doing? The UAE created the world’s first post for the Minister of Artificial Intelligence. President Putin declared that whoever controls A.I. will rule the world. Yes, these countries are more advanced than we are but they give direction to what will come towards us as we try and grow our economies to their level, save the fact that they dictate the direction the world goes in. Are we preparing ourselves enough to leverage these technologies or are we going to be left in the dust again thinking this revolution is only applicable in first world countries? You can follow Houston’s thoughts on AI, the future and startups on his new blog here: www.houstonthenerd.com ai

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IBM LAUNCHES ITS FREE DIGITAL -

powered by IBM Cloud and IBM Digital - Nation Africa offers a cloud-based learning and enablement platform, providing digital competency and nurturing innovation in Africa. The platform includes Watson artificial intelligence, which communicates with the user to build a profile, gives an overview of the current job market, and suggests multiple learning paths.

by Angeline Raseroka IBM University Leader, Southern Africa BUSINESSES TODAY need to be able to change and react to market and customer needs faster than ever before, no matter which industry or which part of the world, as the market is now the world and the competition is everywhere. Adjusting the business processes is one aspect, more fundamentally the businesses need to embrace the new digital world and the key technologies driving it, such that they may leverage the power of AI. That is the challenge, but it is also the opportunity, especially for the youth and businesses of Africa. As we

have witnessed in the music industry, the digital revolution is changing how people engage, and the most successful are embracing this change. Success is no longer controlled by the few but available to all. To help ensure that the African youth and through them the African businesses catch this express train, IBM has launched its FREE Digital â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Nation Africa platform, powered by IBM Cloud and engaging its AI engine Watson. Across Africa IBM is working with many different entities to help ensure that the benefits of this platform are available to as

NATION AFRICA PLATFORM, engaging its AI engine Watson many people as possible. In South Africa, for example, the collaborators include: Western Cape (I-CAN programme), Ethekwini Municipality and Afrika Tikkun to name but a few. The IBM Digital – Nation Africa is a free self-paced learning and innovation platform, empowering African youth with digital skills and tools, to help improve their day to day life and allowing them access to a wider range of opportunities. The platform is designed for African citizens, students, entrepreneurs, and communities, providing both knowledge and tools to innovate, design, develop, and launch their own digital solutions, leveraging the power of AI. As a cloud-based structured learning, enablement and achievement recognition platform, users will learn about the emerging technologies such as Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Blockchain, Data Science & Analytics, and Security. Moreover, the user will have free access to IBM Cloud & AI Platform where they can build their solutions online. Whether they are new to the digital world, or a start-up /entrepreneur, student, recent graduate or a professional, IBM Digital – Nation Africa has something for everyone: The Explorer Journey provides users with a series of short videos that are quick to learn, introducing the key emerging technologies and including examples of how the

technology is being used. For those who wish to discover more, there are additional resources both within IBM Digital – Nation Africa and other IBM web sites. The Innovator Journey allows users to create their own digital solution. It starts with inspiring them by showcasing many examples of innovative digital solutions, followed by providing an introduction to the design thinking methodology, and more importantly providing access to the IBM Cloud Lite account where the users can build their own solution. The New Collar Journey is designed to offer users, the ability to gain key digital skills which are in high demand in the workplace such as Web Application development, Cloud, AI and Blockchain development. Unique to the platform is the use of IBM Watson, that helps create the users’ skill profile, and connects them to a broad range of online recruitment sites in Africa. This provides users with a list of currently available jobs in one place and filter them relevant to their skills. The courses consist of multimedia content, and many include hands-on labs enabling users to experience the technology. All courses include the opportunity for the user to take a quiz and gain an IBM Digital Badge upon successful completion of the course and passing the quiz. Get started today on www.digitalnationafrica.com ai

Who is watching the watchers? While machine learning has the ability to greatly enhance efficiencies, spectacular failures have already occurred. Systems are fortunately being developed to guard against irregularities that have led to these glitches.

2ND QUARTER 2019

ONE OF the initial ideas with artificial intelligence was to address human bias. This was relatively easy in the old days when computers only did what they were told, but is getting harder today with machines sifting through hundreds and thousands of data points to arrive at conclusions. Bias may creep in during many stages of the learning process, starting with poor framing of a problem. This example is nicely illustrated in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which was already written in 1979, with a super computer, named Deep Thought, that was programmed to answer the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. After seven and a half-million years of computing, the computer ironically came up with the answer, “42”. Unlike today’s machines, Deep Thought was smart enough to realise that the answer was “probably meaningless”, because the beings who initiated it never really understood the question. In other words, they might not have known how to correctly frame the question, or did not understand the different ways in which the phrases or terms in the question could be interpreted.

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Machine bias Take the word “fairness” as example, and the different interpretations of “fairness” when it comes to issues such as gender or racial equality as well as the way in which “fairness” should be expressed in mathematical terms when writing machine learning algorithms. Different people will have different interpretations of what fairness is, resulting in different machine learning outcomes. Bias may also slip in during the gathering and usage of data, when the data itself is biased or the data is insufficient to generate representative conclusions. A big problem with facial recognition programmes, for example, has been that the “sample faces” used to teach systems only reflect facial appearances of groups that are easily accessible to the

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

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by Paul Stemmet

A big problem with facial recognition programmes, for example, has been that the ‘sample faces’ used to teach systems only reflect facial appearances of groups that are easily accessible to the programmer.

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programmer. In the America this has led to programmes easily identifying stereotypical Western faces, but struggling to identify minority groups. Another problem is that most systems are not “self conscious”, in other words, they have not been programmed to detect bias in their own “reasoning” or processing of information. In most cases, systems are tested for bias before they are deployed, with this testing done by the same company that designed the system, bringing us back to the age old Roman question: “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.” which can be roughly translated into “who is watching the guards?” Real life applications So how does machine bias affect people? While Deep Thought’s conclusion of the meaning of life had a negligible impact on the galaxy, machine learning bias can ruin lives and actually be fatal. The very same year in which The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was released, was also the same year in which the world suffered its first robot fatality: The American car factory worker, Robert Williams. While it is still unclear what exactly went wrong, Williams died instantaneously after being crushed by a one-ton transfer vehicle that was part of a robot designed

Paul Stemmet is the co-founder and CEO of YAP – a company aimed at optimising advertising returns for publishing companies. For more information contact him at: Email: paul@shinka.sh Cell: 0762754279

to retrieve castings from high density storage shelves. The court awarded William’s estate 10 million USD in 1983, concluding that there were not enough safety measures in place to prevent such an accident from happening. More recently, there has been growing complaints of machine bias making it harder for certain population groups to acquire loans, not only in South Africa but across the world. In the United States, machine bias has led to black prisoners falsely being flagged as almost twice as likely to reoffend than white prisoners. Besides this, the tool was found to correctly predict recidivism 61% of the time, but only 20% of the time when it came to violent crimes. Microsoft’s experiment with a chat bot in 2016 went haywire when the bot, @ TayandYou, became racist after spending less than a day on the internet. The bot, like a child picking up bad habits from the people in his surroundings, was led astray because the people from which it was learning weren’t “very nice”. Even Amazon burnt its fingers in 2014, with a job screening programme that did not like women. The problem being that the computer vetted applicants by looking at historic employment patterns, which were dominated by males. The solution Great strides are nevertheless being made in the battle against bias. Growing awareness of the negative spin-off of “poor” designs is resulting in data scientist taking extra care in formulating questions and ensuring that machines have access to representative unbiased data sets to work from. Various companies are also working hard to address the problem, with IBM specifically developing algorithms to detect and mitigate hidden as well as learned bias. IBM’s Watson OpenScale platform aims to build trust and confidence in machine learning outcomes, by tracking the performance of artificial intelligence programme and their impact on business goals. It brings transparency to systems by generating explanations for decisions reached and conditions under which these decisions would change. When faults are identified, the platform provides “plain text explanations of data ranges that have been impacted by bias in the model” allowing data scientists to fully understand how decisions have been reached. The platform also “de-biases” outcomes and provide fairness and accuracy ratings, to allow data scientists to make informed decisions about whether the models should be deployed. Besides this, the platform lowers the bar when it comes to the development of algorithms, by

automating the process. Instead of inventing algorithms from scratch, data scientists in effect only need to download the model they need to reach their specific outcomes. The platform also allows machines to be sensitive to regional rules and legislation. In South Africa, for example, demographics may be taken into account when it comes to job screenings for companies to reach certain BEE targets. Machine bias in effect should be seen as mere growing pains of a world where things will become increasingly automated. With human error being removed through the creation of automated algorithms, and machines watching machines to ensure reliable outcomes, this world promises to be a lot fairer than the world we currently live in – where decisions are flawed by human biases, with no one to watch over these decision-makers. ai

Democratizing Machine Intelligence About us Ai Kenya is a community of practitioners and enthusiasts in machine learning & Data science across East Africa that come together to share knowledge & challenges in the field. This is done through meetups, learning paths & an annual conference where there is learning, dialogue and showcase of projects developed.

Objectives Create awareness of Machine Learning & Data Science to the general public, industry, institutions and government by initiating dialogue on its impact and implementation. Training and mentorship through learning paths offered to beginners and advanced learners in the field through our training partners. Create and share Ai opportunities by leveraging job vacancies, residency programs and events with our partners. Growing an innovative ecosystem by supporting startup ventures in this scope with information and resources that helps them curate innovative ideas and projects. Building African technology through our commitment to African technology for Africans.

Our mission is to Enable Africa achieve its true potential using technology. kenya.ai

@AIKENYA1

AI Kenya

AI KENYA

About us We hold monthly physical meet ups to bring together community members in learning showcasing and networking activities focused on machine learning and data science. Event types include hackathons, technical trainings, show and tell and spotlight series where we converse with companies contributing to AI in Africa.

Consultancy We are also available for consultancy services on artificial intelligence and customized training sessions for organizations

Podcast We also have a podcast show in video and audio format featuring conversations with startups and companies building solutions or contributing to the field of machine learning and data science in Africa. Ai Kenya podcast can be watched on YouTube and Facebook. You can listen to audio versions on SoundCloud, Spotify, iTunes, Castbox and Google Podcast.

Would you like to sponsor an event or join as a partner?

Ihub Senteu Plaza, 6TH Floor For general inquiries info@kenya.ai

GOVERNMENT ARTIFICIAL Intelligence ReadinessÂ Index 2019

2ND QUARTER 2019

Compiled by Oxford Insights and the International Development Research Centre

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2ND QUARTER 2019

year’s Government AI Readiness Index are dominated by countries with strong economies, good governance, and innovative private sectors. Singapore comes first for AI readiness, with the rest of the top 20 dominated by Western European governments, as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and four further Asian economies. There are no Latin American or African countries in the top 20. “This is a timely reminder of the ongoing inequality around access to AI.” A surprising outcome is China’s relatively low position of 20th, even though central and local governments are already implementing AI in public service delivery. This is largely a result of missing data points, something we discuss in depth in our methodology annex paper. The best performing region, on average, is North America, while the worst performing regions are Africa and the Asia-Pacific. The Index highlights the current inequality in AI readiness between global governments, with higher income countries predictably faring better in the rankings than middle and lower income countries. Given that we are on the cusp of seeing widespread AI implementation across a number of sectors, including public services, this is a timely reminder of the ongoing inequality of access to AI. Considering the disparities highlighted in this report, policymakers should act to ensure that global inequalities are not further entrenched or exacerbated by AI. Emerging technologies offer a unique opportunity to improve the governments of the future, and citizens’ experience of government. As we enter the age of automation, governments must ensure that they are ready to capitalise on the potential power of AI. Any action by governments, however, should be undertaken with great caution. If it is implemented without due care for ethics and safety, AI in public services could be at best ineffective, and at worst, very dangerous. The purpose of assessing and scoring governments’ AI readiness is not to create or fuel a global race for AI. Rather, it is to help policymakers everywhere see where they are performing well, and in which areas they may wish to target their attention going forward. The age of AI is coming, and our intended contribution, through the Index, is to encourage all governments - whether in the Global North or South - to be as prepared as possible to help their citizens take advantage of the benefits of automation, while protecting them from its associated risks. Download the full report here: https://www.oxfordinsights.com/ai-readiness2019 ai

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) technologies are forecast to add US$15 trillion to the global economy by 2030. According to the findings of our Index and as might be expected, the governments of countries in the Global North are better placed to take advantage of these gains than those in the Global South. There is a risk, therefore, that countries in the Global South could be left behind by the so-called fourth industrial revolution. Not only will they not reap the potential benefits of AI, but there is also the danger that unequal implementation widens global inequalities. AI has the power to transform the way that governments around the world deliver public services. In turn, this could greatly improve citizens’ experiences of government. Governments are already implementing AI in their operations and service delivery, to improve efficiency, save time and money, and deliver better quality public services. In 2017, Oxford Insights created the world’s first Government AI Readiness Index, to answer the question: how well placed are national governments to take advantage of the benefits of AI in their operations and delivery of public services? The results sought to capture the current capacity of governments to exploit the innovative potential of AI. The 2019 Government AI Readiness Index, produced with the support of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), sees a development of our methodology, and an expansion of scope to cover all UN countries (from our previous group of OECD members). It scores the governments of 194 countries and territories according to their preparedness to use AI in the delivery of public services. The overall score is comprised of 11 input metrics, grouped under four high-level clusters: governance; infrastructure and data; skills and education; and government and public services. The data is derived from a variety of resources, ranging from our own desk research into AI strategies, to databases such as the number of registered AI startups on Crunchbase, to indices such as the UN eGovernment Development Index. We divided the countries by region, principally following UN groupings, with the chief exception of the Western European and Others Group, which we separated to allow more in-depth analysis of higher scoring governments. For this edition of the Index, we invited regional experts to give commentary for each grouping, to supplement our quantitative findings with their insights and local knowledge. As might be expected, the upper rankings of this

DANTOFON TO HIGHLIGHT IMPORTANCE OF IP PROTECTION

for AI Technology and Use of Patent Data to Gain a Global Advantage

Intellectual Property experts Dantofon will be showcasing their services at AI Expo Africa 2019, and highlighting the need for African tech innovators to understandand use IP protection to safeguard their technological advantages to give them a compeitive global edge, along with patent data to gain insights into the global market.

“TECHNICAL CONCEPTS and all industries are constantly changing as innovation becomes more disruptive across all global sectors,” says Dantofon’s Shane Picoto. “China, Korea and the US lead the AI Sector. How? We can ask ourselves. The answer is simple: They utilize patent data available to them. How do we compete in this global marketplace? We learn to leverage the same data intelligence.” “Leveraging patent data can be one of your biggest assets. This allows you to create a strategy knowing who your competitors are, what they are doing in the market, where they are doing it, use it to gain insight into technology concepts and market trends. Patent Data can also ensure that precautions are taken to prevent infringement of your concept. It can be used to direct and accelerate your innovations or product development. This knowledge is vital for a competitive advantage, for securing international investment and recognition, and can shorten time to market, creating well developed work flows,” says Shane. “Consider these statistics: In the AI tech space there are a total of 36519 patents filed historically. Only 1 has been filed in the last 15 months pertaining to Cybersecurity in SA,” says Shane. Let Dantofon assist your tech company to be bold, knowledgeable, a global player and to be disruptive! Dantofon will be at AI Expo Africa 2019 - For more info on

Dantofon’s services contact: Shane Miguel Picoto, smpicoto@ dantofon.com +27 (65) 851 1365. ai

CMY

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In the AI tech space there are a total of 36519 patents filed historically. Only 1 has been filed in the last 15 months pertaining to Cybersecurity in South Africa

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Ethical AI: Building the African Bot

2ND QUARTER 2019

Building the African Bot How Ethical AI is Harnessing Talents in Setting Up A Research Lab In the 21st century, every organization has a data. But what makes a great one? We all know what failure looks like. are invested, teams are formed, time goes by—but nothing comes of it. No one can necessarily say why; it’s always someone else’s fault. It’s harder to tell the difference between a modest success and excellence. Indeed, in data they can they look very similar for perhaps a year. After several years, though, an excellent strategy will yield valuable results of more magnitude. Artificial intelligence(AI) Technologies are already popping up in many industries and across our daily lives; from driverless cars to smart-home speakers. The AI market is expected to undergo rapid growth, expanding from about $4 billion in 2016 to $169 billion in 2025. This tech potential- which includes everything from machine-learning microchips to smart assistants and smart speakers - has yet been realized, but a handful of companies are already making big moves. If you’re skeptical of AI, there’s a growing list of reasons you

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by Derek Kweku Degbedzui, Founder and President Ethical AI Lab might want to reconsider your position. Here are some of the best predictions for the artificial intelligence market that should convince any that AI is worth monitoring. Artificial intelligence won’t just change businesses— it will transform the global economy. A PwC reports estimates that artificial intelligence technologies will add $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030. China’s economy is expected to reap the biggest benefit from AI, with an increase of 26% to its gross domestic product by 2030 while the U.S. could see a 14.5% increase of its GDP. Marketing hyperbole is increasing confusion around artificial intelligence(AI) resulting in many enterprises missing an important source of innovation and differentiation. Business leadership tends to misunderstand the application of AI techniques, requiring data and analytic leaders to manage their expectations or risk costly project failures. Many organizations implement AI techniques without first identifying potential skills gap, making them difficult to evaluate and eventually to implement. When Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg testified

2ND QUARTER 2019

push the boundaries of what existing science and technology can achieve. To do so we need to conduct fundamental research to increase human knowledge and apply Research that translates it into tangible impact in our everyday lives. To be successful in this endeavor, we leverage strengths from many areas. With our network, we embody an open and collaborative research culture. We possess talents from the full breadth of the AI spectrum— from deep learning to operations research— and from fields like physics, applied mathematics, computational statistics, biology and neuroscience. We are proud to conclude and perhaps our greatest Strength, our learning-oriented culture ensures that everyone can contribute to advancing our research, no matter their titles and experience. We are happy for the things we are doing in AI research. The people in the company are ambitious and fast-growing with AI deep in their DNA. We are committed to building solutions that have real-world impacts on Society and across many organizations. We embrace risk where the reward is high, and prioritize continual learning. Our core value is to be bold, creative and impactful. We value equality and work collaboratively. Our culture is built on autonomy, trust and diversity. We encourage everyone to “act like owners” and to make decisions if they believe it’s in the best interest of our organization. We want to empower everyone to bring their best selves to work. We are working to build humane, ethical and explainable AI that will help democratize AI for everyone. Hence making its beneficial and accessible to people. ai

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in front of the US Congress, Technology experts quickly realized how poorly informed his questions were. As much as Congress wanted to regulate the tech behemoth, it was clear they had no idea how. Instead, they let him get away with grandiose claims about how AI would solve all the company’s problems. Dipayan Ghost, a Research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School(HKS) is co-directing a new AI policy initiative with Tom Wheeler, a Senior Research Fellow at HKS and the Chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission under Obama. Founded by HKS’s; Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, the initiative will focus on expanding the legal and academic scholarship around AI ethics and regulation. It will also host a boot camp for US Congress members to help them learn more about the technology. The hope is that with these combined efforts, Congress and other Policymakers will be better equipped to effectively regulate and shepherd the growing impact of AI on society. The competition to develop AI is usually portrayed as a battle among Goliaths—-Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple, IBM in the US; Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent in China. These tech companies have started working on AI applications and many have created platforms for AI research, learning and others. Developing AI requires massive amount of data, and it’s hard to compete with the millions of terabytes in the hands of the behemoths. That’s largely consumer data. Vast amount of proprietary corporate data lie outside the giant’s reach. In the midst of these uncertainties and disadvantages of competing against these companies; there is a call for collective actions from governments and social organizations to work with institutions to develop AI roadmaps for their people. AI will affect everyone and so it is important we do engage in actions that prepare us for the future. Cofounded in September 2018 by a team of young entrepreneurs and leading AI researchers in KNUST is Ethical AI. Our goal is to pioneer the African AI dream by turning most important AI research into transformative business applications. sWith a renewed mindset and commitment, we believe in becoming the largest privately owned AI R&D Lab in Africa as well as a growing network of specialized business partners. Research is the core of AI application. We can tackle difficult problems from multiple fields and industries that requires us to

Africa Is Geared Up I am not a natural-born conference goer but occasionally they are an important and necessary part of the job. Recently, I attended the Deep learning IndabaX conference a machine learning and artificial intelligence conference. The conference is organised by individuals from a few different institutions that have a passion for machine learning and sharing knowledge. I have learnt a lot this year by attending Meet ups, conferences and travelling. I believe Africa is becoming a full player in the world economy. by Silent Dzikiti Junior Data Scientist, Global Stalls

Government and its young generation The dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a daunting and terrifying era but many African countries are embracing new technologies. According to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga the new curricula in South African schools will provide learners with to skills and prepare them for the froth industrial revolution. It was very encouraging to see so many young African man and women at the IndabaX, it is testament that Africa’s youth and women in particular, are harnessed for greatness. I like the words of Bonnie Deuschle an award-winning music gospel artist who said Involvement is the key to your call”. With the youth, women, government and businesses involved, nothing can stop us now. The Way Forward In conclusion I would like to encourage you to partner with Africa with the words of Fitzhugh Mullan “Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey”. Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa once said “Go where the need is greatest and the help is smallest”. Artificial Intelligence will transform agriculture, banking, entrepreneurship and many other sectors. Your work is immortal. Your sacrifices will extend well beyond your time on this planet. Every great person has benefited from the struggles of those who came before them. As Moses said, and Dr King reiterated, it may not be your destiny to reach the promise land, but it’s still your responsibility to get your people to the precipice. ai

2ND QUARTER 2019

Business Recently I travelled to Zimbabwe and I was astonished by the innovation in this underdeveloped country. The long queues at the banks caused by cash shortages are unbearable for Zimbabweans, as an aid to remedy this one can now open a bank account using the WhatsApp phone application or by sending a text message and also apply for a small loan, which takes about 60 seconds to get approved. This has made it so much easier for people, especially senior citizens, to open accounts and have access to cash on their mobile phones and not have to wait in queues for a long period of time. They can now access their cash on their mobile phones, they can get a small loan. This sounds great because 60 seconds is way faster than begging a friend to send money for an emergency. This is just one of the most transformative

applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in financial technology.

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AFRICA ESSENTIALLY missed the opportunities of the second and third industrial revolutions. This time around Africa will not miss the possibilities of the forth industrial revolution. Contrary to the previous industrial revolutions, this one is evolving at an exponential rather than linear pace. The greatest asset of Africa is its young population. From an estimated population from 140 million in 1900, it has grown to a billion by 2010. According to United Nations “medium scenario” projections, this figure will rise to 2.5 billion in 2050 and more than 4 billion 2050 and more than 4 billion in 2100. Today, one out of six people live in Africa. As Africa has risen to prominence as an investment destination over the past few years so the role of technology has taken on greater significance. The two main sectors that are making changes are the business and government sectors:

Building One million African AI talents in 10 years: The Data Science Nigeria Foundation end-to-end ArtiďŹ cial Intelligence ecosystem

OUR VISION

OUR PLATFORMS

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OUR VISION To build a world-class Artificial Intelligence (AI) knowledge, research and innovation ecosystem that delivers highi m p a c t t ra n s fo r m a t i o n a l re s e a rc h , b u s i n e ss u s e applications, AI-first start-ups, support employability and social good use cases. We are committed to raising one million AI talents in 10 years and thus position Nigeria as one of the top 10 AI talent/knowledge destinations with 20% GDP multiplier impact. We are poised to accelerate Nigeria's socio-economic development through a solution-oriented application of machine learning in solving social/business problems and to galvanize data science/Artificial Intelligence knowledge revolution, which will position Nigeria as an outsourcing hub for global projects.

BUILDING 1MILLION AFRICAN AI TALENT IN 10 YEARS:

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OUR PLATFORMS ﬁrst of its kind initiatives built from Nigeria · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·

1st Intercampus Machine Learning competition Artificial Intelligence Bootcamp Artificial Intelligence Summer school for Grades 5-9 students Free AI ebooks AI+ Knowledge Box AI+ Clubs in secondary and universities Deep Learning Nigeria Artificial Intelligence for Executive Artificial Intelligence Hub Pan-Nigerian Data Collection apps (text, picture, video and sound) AI Invasion – Introductory Machine Learning classes in Nigerian cities AI+ Researchers Network AI+ Professional Meet-Up AI Wednesdays AI Classes for post-secondary schools/pre-university students AgroAI Lab, Yaba, Lagos Financial Inclusion Lab, Victoria Island, Lagos AI Masterclass Artificial Intelligence Summit DataHacks – Hackathon focussed on industry data Business Analytics Masterclass for Professionals Etc.

BUILDING 1MILLION AFRICAN AI TALENT IN 10 YEARS:

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OUR ACHIEVEMENTS ﬁrst of its kind initiatives built from Nigeria

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direct download of our Artiﬁcial Intelligence for Starter free ebook to stimulate interest in Artiﬁcial Intelligence through use cases and inspirational contribution from leading global AI experts including Prof Yoshua Bengio, Professor Emeritus Thomas G. Dietterich and Prof. dr. M. (Max) Welling

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online participants in Data Science courses – from registration to at least one class

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BUILDING 1MILLION AFRICAN AI TALENT IN 10 YEARS:

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OUR VISION

BUILDING 1MILLION AFRICAN AI TALENT IN 10 YEARS:

OUR VISION

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BUILDING 1MILLION AFRICAN AI TALENT IN 10 YEARS:

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AI Knowledge Box

Effectively bringing world-class AI knowledge to Africans On Wednesday 20th of February 2019, Data Science Nigeria (DSN) unveiled its artificial intelligence (AI) knowledge boxes in a bid to build stronger AI communities in Nigeria and Africa. The AI Knowledge Box is a first-of-itskind 2-terabyte external hard drives containing approximately 10,141 educational videos and is part of Data Science Nigeria's (DSN) vision to build a world-class Artificial Intelligence (AI) ecosystem in Nigeria. The learning videos, which has been professionally downloaded from diverse AI learning platforms of top international Artificial Intelligence universities, leading global Machine Learning researchers and first-rated AI conferences across the world. The selected videos are free and publicly available content, which is catalogued based on knowledge level, interest, specialisation and domain of application. With this, Nigerian students who want to learn Big Data, Data Science, Machine/Deep Learning and other advanced analytics tools can now access the best learning materials without the challenges of internet cost, electricity limitation and poor download speed. Any self-driven learner can now be well equipped with the most robust knowledge at the same level as the best experts who practice AI in top schools and research labs in the US, UK and Canada.

This eﬀort is in alignment with DSN's roadmap to build a community of 1 million AI practitioners in 10 years, which will position Nigeria as one of the top 10 AI talent destination in the world, with 20% GDP multiplier across all industries. 10

BUILDING 1MILLION AFRICAN AI TALENT IN 10 YEARS:

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3RD QUARTER 2018 ZAR25 | US$2.50 | Euro1.60

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AI has the Potential to Transform Africa, leveraging its benefits for the Social & Economic Good of the Continent. AI Expo Africa will see a gathering of Africa’s AI Leaders to plot the way forward for the 4th Industrial Revolution

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Synapse - Africa’s 4IR Trade & Innovation Magazine - 2nd Quarter 2019 Issue 04

Articles inside

Microsoft Opens First Datacentres in Africa

Africa's first AI-Only Focused Venture Capital Company

Microsoft & EY Joint Study Reveals AI Maturity Levels in Africa

Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index

Africa's First AI Art & Music Challenge