If you have ever interacted with the Zuri chatbot or bought a personalized data bundle from Safaricom, then you have interacted with some of the products of Safaricom’s venture into the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
For more than five years now, the company has been using AI and Machine Learning to develop products, analyse data and better understand its customers.
“AI, literally in the simplest of forms, is our ability to make machines a lot more intelligent or think like humans. But it’s us making it so, and therefore there’s a massive role that we play as human beings,” said Charlotte Kepadisa, Safaricom Head of Big Data and Analytics.
Machine learning is a branch of AI and computer science that focuses on the use of data and algorithms to imitate the way that humans learn, gradually improving its accuracy.
With a subscriber base of 46 million, Safaricom is a large data processor, and Charlotte is quick to point out that the company is keenly aware of its responsibility over the huge amount of data that it collects and the need to use it ethically, protect it and ensure that use of the data benefits the consumer.
Safaricom, which aims to be a purpose-led technology company by 2025, additionally uses AI and ML to, among other things, scale its cloud infrastructure, analyse data across social media for marketing use, automate the coding and testing processes and to also enhance the prevention of fraud especially in M-Pesa.
The forward-looking company has now taken another ground-breaking leap into the AI world with the shooting of an AI-generated TV commercial for the fourth edition of the Safaricom Chapa Dimba football tournament.
The advert was filmed at the M-Pesa Foundation Academy grounds by South African animation and visual effects studio, Polycat, in collaboration with Kenyan creatives.
“The visual approach is a mix of live action and animation. Animation gives us the room to really create a bit of fantasy and a bit of magic so that for that moment, for the 45 seconds they are interacting with the film, they feel like they are in that Chapa Dimba world,” said Mburu Ng’ang’a, a Creative Lead at Tessera Communications Ltd.
The on-pitch action was filmed in front of giant blue screens on different pitches. The screens were then turned into AI-animated artistically inspired worlds.
At first, the creatives were unsure about the brief, which is consistent with the global unease around the use of AI and its potential to lead to job cuts, especially in the creative space.
While the creatives were initially sceptical, said Zizwe Awuor, Safaricom’s Director of Brand and Marketing, their experience while putting the advert together resulted in a change of mind. “We need to show that AI can be a tool for creative excellence, for marketing effectiveness. It’s been so cool to see the same naysayers flip and say, ‘This was incredible’. It (AI) allowed us to do so much. I’m just really excited about that transformation. And it hopefully changes the conversation when it comes to AI for good.”
Given that AI is currently slowly making its foray into the African creative space, the makers of the advert had to deal with numerous challenges, among them the AI struggling to find African faces and African landscapes.
“Getting control over the AI and making it cohesive throughout was very, very tricky. But in the end, after many, many hours, we managed to pull off a result that we all love, and I think AI made the ad look really great,” said Helmut-Sisipho Fritsche, a Lighting Artist and AI Specialist at Polycat.
Overall, the ethics around the use of AI are still a matter of debate globally.
George Njuguna, Director, Information Technology at Safaricom concurs.
“Certainly, there’s the ethical questions around it. But even in a lot of the technologies that have had an impact on human civilization in the past, as they came in, those questions were there. So, Safaricom, I believe, must not just embrace AI but also take a leadership role, especially in Kenya, in discussing it from a policy perspective and adoption perspective, but also guiding other industries as they adopt it. That’s where Safaricom being a leading tech company, comes in,“ he said.
In keeping with the AI theme, footballers in the Safaricom Chapa Dimba football tournament will also wear vests that will collect critical data such as sprints per distance, average speed, top speed, distance per minute accelerations, decelerations as well as their heatmaps. This information, a kind of football CV, will be available digitally to the Football Kenya Federation as well as international coaches and scouts.
The tournament, which is resuming this year after a three-year hiatus, kicked off early July in the Western region, and it will culminate in a national tournament in January 2024.
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Watch the 45-second advert here:
