Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has officially launched Econet AI, a new business unit aimed at accelerating the adoption of artificial intelligence across Zimbabwe’s economy.

Unveiled in Harare yesterday, Econet AI immediately introduced a suite of products and capabilities designed to accelerate AI use across the market, in multiple sectors, by corporate organizations and individuals. During the launch, Econet AI announced an exciting offer to Econet customers – starting in May (next month) – of free six-months access to Google Gemini, one of the world’s most advanced AI platforms. Google Gemini uses advanced multimodal generative AI models that simultaneously process, understand and create content across multiple data types – such as text, images, audio, video and code. Econet AI also introduced Cassava AiCloud, a platform that will give Zimbabwean enterprises access to high-performance computing, powered by NVIDIA GPUs – the super high-speed processors that can handle complex and multiple tasks simultaneously. The infrastructure is hosted at the Cassava AI Factory in South Africa, currently the only facility of its kind on the African continent.

Delegates to the launch included ICT, Postal and Courier Services Minister Tatenda Mavetera – who was guest of honour – senior government officials, regulators, business leaders, equipment vendors and partners, suppliers and clients of the Econet group.
Econet Group Chief Executive Officer Douglas Mboweni earlier revealed that the AI unit had been evolving quietly over the past five years as an internal innovation hub.

“We have been using and applying artificial intelligence within our own operations – improving customer experience, optimising network performance and enhancing decision-making across the business,” he said. “Our experience shows that AI is a remarkable technology that every business should be deploying. It dramatically reduces costs and has the potential to significantly grow revenue.”