Botlhale AI is a South African startup that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help businesses communicate with their customers in different languages. Founded in 2020 by Thapelo Nthite, Sange Maxaku and Xolisani Nkwentsha, the startup aims to address the language divide in South Africa and beyond by providing conversational AI solutions that are accessible, affordable, and inclusive.
AI is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. Specific applications of AI include expert systems, natural language processing, speech recognition and machine vision.
AI is fast becoming the go-to technology for the global economy, as it enables people and businesses to automate and improve various tasks and functions. According to a report by the African Development Bank, Africa has the potential to become a leader in the adoption of AI, as it can leverage its young and growing population, abundant data, and emerging innovation ecosystems.
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However, the adoption and sometimes the use of AI tools in the African context can be lower than the adoption in other markets due to various challenges such as infrastructure, skills, and regulations. That leaves a gap for companies like Botlhale AI, which are developing AI solutions that are tailored to the specific needs and preferences of the African market.
How Botlhale AI Works
Botlhale AI, which means “wise or clever” in Sesotho, is a startup that leverages advanced language processing technology to break down barriers in communication. The startup offers three AI tools that help businesses engage their customers in languages they understand and trust:
Call Center Analytics Tool: This tool enables call centers to transcribe their interactions in multiple languages and extract valuable insights from the calls, such as customer satisfaction, sentiment, and feedback. This helps call centres ensure compliance, enhance agent performance, and streamline their quality assurance processes, regardless of the language spoken during the call.
Multilingual Help Desk and Virtual Assistant Builder: This tool allows support agents to translate customer messages in real-time and respond in the customer’s preferred language, breaking down linguistic barriers to effective communication. This tool also enables businesses to create and deploy their own virtual assistants, which can handle common queries and requests from customers in different languages 24/7.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) APIs: These are application programming interfaces that allow for more computer programs or components to communicate with each other. Botlhale AI offers its NLP tools independently through APIs, which allow for seamless, custom integrations with other business solutions, such as chatbots, websites, and mobile apps.
Botlhale AI’s co-founder and CEO, Thapelo Nthite, explained in an interview with Connecting Africa that the startup was inspired by the exclusion of a significant portion of the population from the digital economy, as well as the exclusion from accessing essential online activities like business registration or banking, due to language barriers.
He said that the startup provides its clients with conversational AI, allowing them to reduce support costs and increase customer reach, conversion, and retention. He also said that Botlhale AI conversational bots help businesses provide a higher-quality service to their customers by delivering personalized and relevant responses in their native languages.
Botlhale AI’s Vision and Impact
Botlhale AI’s vision is to create a more inclusive and equitable digital future by breaking down language barriers and empowering people to access information and opportunities in their own languages. The startup’s mission is to provide conversational AI solutions that are accessible, affordable, and inclusive to businesses and organizations across various sectors and regions.
Botlhale AI’s impact can be seen in the results and testimonials of its clients, which include government agencies, financial institutions, and e-commerce platforms. For example, Botlhale AI helped the South African Revenue Service (SARS) create a multilingual virtual assistant, Lwazi, which can answer tax-related questions in 11 official languages. Lwazi has helped SARS to improve its customer service, reduce its call center workload, and increase its tax compliance.
Botlhale AI also helped Yoco, a fintech company that provides payment solutions to small businesses, to create a multilingual help desk, which can support customers in English, Afrikaans, Zulu, and Xhosa. Yoco has reported that the help desk has improved its customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty, as well as its operational efficiency and scalability.
Botlhale AI’s co-founder and CEO, Thapelo Nthite, said that the startup’s dedication stems from a desire to make a difference in the lives of those marginalized in the digital world and that the startup aims to expand its reach and impact to other African countries and beyond.
Botlhale AI’s Challenges and Opportunities
Botlhale AI, like any other startup, faces some challenges and opportunities in its journey. One of the challenges is the dynamic and competitive nature of the startup, AI, and the conversational AI landscape, which makes it difficult to identify and differentiate from the competitors. Nthite said that the startup’s diverse product offerings mean that it encounters competitors across various aspects of its business and that the competitive landscape is always changing.
Another challenge is the availability and quality of data, which is essential for training and improving the AI models. Nthite said that the startup has to deal with the scarcity and inconsistency of data, especially for some of the African languages, and that the startup has to invest a lot of time and resources in data collection and processing.
However, Botlhale AI also sees some opportunities and advantages in its market. One of the opportunities is the growing demand and awareness of AI and conversational AI solutions, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has accelerated the digital transformation of many businesses and organizations. Nthite said that the pandemic has created a need and an opportunity for businesses to communicate and interact with their customers remotely and effectively and that conversational AI can help them achieve that.
Another opportunity is the uniqueness and diversity of the African market, which offers a lot of potential and room for innovation and customization. Nthite said that the African market is not a monolith but a mosaic of different languages, cultures, and preferences and that Botlhale AI can leverage its local knowledge and expertise to create AI solutions that are tailored to the specific needs and contexts of the African market.