He has no salary. No limit on working hours. He is available 24/7, 365 days a year. He has no leisure time or weekends either. He is the ideal employment profile that every employer dreams of having. His name is Isaac Ahmed, an A.I. avatar. While some clients of the technology solutions company ST Digital already know him, many potential clients discovered him on Thursday, 5 September 2024, during the broadcast of the TV programme "Start-Up" on the Canal + Pop television channel. Isaac Ahmed has been tasked for months with managing the A.I. strategy of this company. "The idea behind the creation of this director position entrusted to an A.I. was to lead by example. To demonstrate that we sell A.I., and we use it ourselves. All ST Digital clients will thus be able to have their own Isaac Ahmed," stated Anthony Samè, the founder of ST Digital.
ST Digital positions itself with their local AI.
This other innovation from ST Digital is in line with the vision of this Microsoft partner in Africa — that of promoting digital sovereignty and autonomy through, this time, a local artificial intelligence. With Isaac Ahmed, ST Digital demonstrates that AI, far from being a threat, is an opportunity. The local co-pilot is a tool for efficiency and mass data processing. It positions itself as a companion for African businesses in achieving their objectives.
"Our applications and data must reside in our countries and comply with our laws. We cannot develop if we seek technology abroad — we must internalize it and create local value. Isaac Ahmed is used in local languages to provide customer service in Fulfulde, for example. It is an A.I. solution built on local African data."
supports Anthony Same
The service has only been in existence for a few months and its positioning is already attracting clients. Julien Ngue is the Strategy and Performance Director of an insurance company. Following a direct exchange with the Artificial Intelligence Director of ST Digital, satisfaction was evident. "Someone may have a claim at a late hour. They panic and wonder what to do. Isaac AHMED can help them. Where service hours are closed, it would be great to have continuity of service," he said with satisfaction. To have an Isaac AHMED available 24/7, the insurance company must pay 200,000 CFA Francs.
Read also: Read also: ST Digital launches an application for Africa's digital sovereignty
While ensuring service continuity, Isaac does not replace a human being. "My existence as an A.I. is to complement and optimise the diverse capabilities of ST Digital. This is achieved by adopting different competencies and a particular efficiency in data processing and productive analytics. My integration at ST aims to enrich the team and improve overall global capabilities without replacing existing positions," Isaac Ahmed defines himself during a meeting with potential clients. Depending on client requests, the Avatar presents the objectives to be achieved, assesses risks, and personalises offers.
According to the founder of the company specialising in digital transformation, on the programme "Start-Up", Isaac Ahmed is an extremely powerful tool for productivity, efficiency, mass data processing, directly accessible and integrated. It operates according to the licensing policy that the company assigns to it. It is a so-called responsible, supervised, enterprise-grade AI. This product and all the 100% Cameroonian Datacenter and Cloud offerings of the pan-African company ST Digital were present at Gitex Africa. This Tech fair in Africa was held from 29 to 31 May 2024 in Marrakech, Morocco. The top management of this organisation, established in 7 African countries, presented on how to create local value before more than 400 investors.