Kenya’s leading telecommunication company Safaricom rolled out Zuri, an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot that will help the telco’s customers to make inquiries via Telegram and Facebook Messenger.
Safaricom started testing Zuri in the first quarter of this year before officially unveiling it this week.
To converse with Zuri, all you need is to search for it in any of the two messaging services and initiate an exchange with any form of greeting.
With Zuri, Safaricom customers will be able to manage their subscription services, for instance, viewing subscriptions and unsubscribing from chargeable SMS services.
It was also developed to handle M-PESA queries such as transaction reversals, data bundle purchases, airtime top up.
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A customer of Safaricom can also check M-PESA and airtime balances using Zuri.
While AI chatbots can’t eliminate the importance of human interaction, they’re being endorsed because of being faster and always available.
At the launch of the service, Safaricom Chief Customer Officer, Sylvia Mulinge said, “We are continually working to provide the best experience to our customers by investing in technology and products that are designed to give them more choice and control.”
She added: “Zuri will add to the already existing self-care options we have including USSD and mySafaricom app. Using AI, Zuri will be able to constantly evolve and learn from the interactions it has with customers in order to provide accurate responses.”
In addition to the mentioned features, the chatbot also provides information on how to retrieve your PUK number, unlock your M-PESA account, and even how to get a loan.
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