Subsidiary of telecoms giant develops AI model using thousands of hours of recorded speech from Ndebele speakers
HARARE – Econet AI, the wholly owned artificial intelligence subsidiary of Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, is preparing to launch a Ndebele-speaking customer-support chatbot by the end of September, marking a significant expansion of the telecommunications giant’s AI capabilities.
The chatbot has been developed using thousands of hours of recorded speech from Ndebele speakers, with the AI model being trained to understand customer queries and provide accurate, natural-language responses. The service will initially be rolled out in phases, with further training and refinement expected to enable the chatbot to hold fully conversational interactions in Ndebele by the end of 2026.
BUILDING ON THE SUCCESS OF YAMURAI
The training process mirrors that used to develop Yamurai, Econet AI’s Shona-speaking chatbot, which is already capable of handling more than 70 percent of customer enquiries. Both systems learn from real customer interactions, using exchanges in which Econet customer-service agents respond to enquiries and resolve support issues to improve the AI systems’ ability to understand and answer similar questions.
Econet’s AI platforms currently operate alongside about 600 employees working in the company’s customer-service contact centres, complementing rather than replacing human agents. The chatbots currently support English and Shona, while Ndebele and Tonga are being added as Econet seeks to make its services accessible to a wider section of Zimbabwe’s population.
AMBITIOUS EXPANSION PLANS
Beyond Ndebele and Tonga, the company also plans to expand the platforms to support major regional and international languages, including Swahili, Mandarin and French.
Looking further ahead, Econet intends to make its AI platforms increasingly “agentic” – enabling them to perform tasks on behalf of users rather than simply provide information. Such capabilities could eventually allow customers to use the chatbots to make restaurant reservations and assist with a range of everyday, business and economic activities.
PART OF BROADER AI STRATEGY
The development of multilingual and agentic AI systems forms part of Econet’s broader strategy to use artificial intelligence to improve customer service, increase accessibility and deliver faster support across its platforms.
Econet AI was launched earlier this year to provide advanced artificial intelligence solutions tailored to the Zimbabwean market. The company works closely with Cassava AI, the group’s global artificial intelligence business, combining international expertise with locally developed technologies designed to address the needs of Zimbabwean customers.