The Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, algorithms, blockchain and Big Data.
There was a time when these ideas sounded like Armageddon.
Yet, they have become a reality today with companies big and small, at home and abroad, leveraging on advances in technology, innovation and creativity to change the way they offer services and how they relate with their customers for better outcomes.
Companies like Safaricom looked at data showing just how many of their customers were trying to complete M-Pesa transactions but were unable to do so just because they were a few shillings short.
Some of them were going for up to 24 hours before topping up their mobile wallets to complete the aborted transactions.
The Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, algorithms, blockchain and Big Data. There was a time when these ideas sounded like Armageddon. Yet, they have become a reality today with companies big and small, at home and abroad, leveraging on advances in technology, innovation and creativity to change the way they offer services and how they relate with their customers for better outcomes.
And the results are evident. Companies like Safaricom looked at data showing just how many of their customers were trying to complete M-Pesa transactions but were unable to do so just because they were a few shillings short. Some of them were going for up to 24 hours before topping up their mobile wallets to complete the aborted transactions. Safaricom asked; what can we do to reduce the time it takes these customers to complete these transactions?
In retrospect, the answer may sound simple. The telco partnered with banks to help its subscribers to get overnight loans that made it possible to complete their transactions in the shortest time possible. Within a few weeks of founding, the mobile phone company had moved billions of shillings in overdrafts. That is more than some county governments receive in a year.
Shortly after the launch of the service, international companies like AliBaba started lining up to sign deals with the Kenyan firm because they saw the potential that such partnerships offered. Now, a trader in Kijabe Street, Nairobi, can take an overdraft on Fuliza and order bathroom sets from China without lifting his eyes off the phone.
And to think that all this is happening with 3G and 4G technology, even as Kenya, and much of the world, awaits the arrival of the much cheaper and faster 5G, which makes it possible, say, for a farmer keeping fish in a cage in the waters of Lake Victoria to monitor how his fish are faring.
This might sound like science fiction but it is already happening in some Nordic countries. One such firm has such advanced technological innovations that it can pin-point lice on the body of a fish and drop the antidote needed to kill the lice without spraying the entire body of the fish.
That means they are growing healthier fish, using less chemicals and dramatically improving their productivity just by leveraging on innovations such as high-powered cameras connected to a control room from which the farmer can see just what is happening to each of the thousands of fish he is growing. And to think there are places where fishermen still have to wait for nightfall to go to sea, holding hurricane lamps, staying up all night waiting to catch random fish!
You may say that that innovation is possible in aquaculture. So let us talk about security. Who would have imagined 10 years ago that one could use face recognition technology as the key to open doors in homes and offices or to locate criminals rooming in city streets. Yet, in many urban areas across the globe, this has now become a reality.
In some places, when a camera spots the face of a wanted criminal, it triggers off an alarm, enabling police to zero in on their suspects without having to lock down entire neighbourhoods.
Now, thanks to such innovations, smart local governments like Seoul’s are building intelligent cities that even have the capability to inform motorists which roads are congested or have the highest levels of air pollution; where to find services such as parking or chemists and how to navigate around towns in the safest, fastest and most convenient ways.
What is more, savvy private companies have leveraged such data to come up with creative logistics services that can deliver anything from passengers to fridges and fruits in mind-bogglingly short turn-around times. What do innovations like these tell us? That the world is changing at the speed of light. We have more people alive today than in all human history, yet, thanks to innovation and creativity, it is much easier to feed, shelter and move them than at any other time in the history of civilisation.
Soon, car owners will be sitting in the back seats of their vehicles, doing their office work as the cars take them to work after which they will self-drive themselves back home to pick children from school, that is, if the children will not already have enrolled in smart schools with digital teachers. Of course, such advances present their own risks, such as private data breaches and loss of privacy but since they are here already, the onus is on us to come up with ways to counter these threats. After all, what can be imagined today can be achieved tomorrow.
