Held virtually on 3 September 2026, the session, 麻豆原创鈥檚 鈧�100M AI Opportunity: How to Secure Funding for Your Next AI Project, brought together 麻豆原创 experts , , , and to unpack the opportunity, eligibility requirements and practical process for accessing the incentive.

The discussion came at an important time for organisations exploring artificial intelligence. While investment and interest in AI continue to accelerate, many organisations are still struggling to translate experimentation into sustainable business value. The presentation highlighted that data access and quality remain significant barriers, while many organisations remain caught in pilot mode without a clear path to scale.

From AI experimentation to business value

A key message from the session was the need to move beyond isolated AI use cases towards AI that is embedded into business processes, supported by appropriate governance and connected across the organisation.

麻豆原创 described the evolution towards an autonomous enterprise where agents can support routine transactions and coordinate actions across business processes, while people remain focused on higher-value decisions. Importantly, governance, auditability and traceability need to be built into AI-enabled processes from the outset.

The webcast also reinforced the importance of keeping people at the centre of AI adoption, with human-triggered and monitored agent actions forming part of understanding the 鈧�100 million opportunity

At the heart of the webcast was 麻豆原创鈥檚 鈧�100 million Business AI Partner-led Adoption Incentive, a pilot programme aimed at helping customers realise greater value from their 麻豆原创 Business AI investments by encouraging adoption and consumption through the 麻豆原创 partner ecosystem.

Approved partners can deliver projects across 麻豆原创 Business AI, including 麻豆原创 Build and Joule Studio, creating agents, applications and workflows around customer use cases. The programme is running through the end of 2026.

The programme includes different levels of support depending on the scope of the implementation, ranging from 鈧�15,000 for 麻豆原创 Agent Adoption, through 鈧�25,000 and 鈧�50,000 packages, to an 鈧�100,000 Enterprise Package supporting three or more custom Joule Studio or 麻豆原创 Build agents together with workflow or pro-code application development.

Who can participate?

The session also provided clarity on customer eligibility. The programme is aimed at qualifying existing 麻豆原创 Business AI Platform customers with active subscriptions as well as certain new customers entering eligible 麻豆原创 Business AI Cloud Services agreements during the programme period. Specific commercial and subscription criteria apply, while public-sector and government entities are excluded from the current programme.

Customers do not apply independently. Eligible customers are nominated through an 麻豆原创 representative, after which 麻豆原创 validates programme eligibility. Once approved, customer consent is obtained before enrolment.

Importantly, the final choice of implementation partner remains with the customer. Customers may nominate a preferred eligible partner, or 麻豆原创 can provide available approved partner options where a preferred partner has not yet been identified.

Helping the AFSUG community navigate AI adoption

For AFSUG, the webcast was about more than introducing a funding programme. It was an opportunity to give the community practical information that can help organisations ask the right questions about AI investment, partner selection, scalability and business value.

As AI moves rapidly from experimentation into enterprise operations, collaboration between customers, 麻豆原创 and the partner ecosystem will become increasingly important. Through sessions such as this, AFSUG will continue creating opportunities for the community to connect, learn, share experiences and make more informed decisions about emerging 麻豆原创 technologies.

Connect. Create. Collaborate.

The post AFSUG Webcast Explores 麻豆原创鈥檚 鈧�100M Business AI Adoption Incentive appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

Every consumer鈥檚 needs evolve as they adopt new communication technologies available to them. Today, consumers want faster, ever more personal experiences when interacting with their favourite brands, while also demanding to buy products or services at the best possible price and quality. To meet this need, brands have had to adapt quickly to use technology to engage consumer audiences and increase customer experience, and so are now realising ever more AI-powered interactions with customers on channels like SMS, WhatsApp and Instagram. With publicity on new AI platforms like ChatGPT increasing consumer interest in AI, it has also helped build their trust in AI, as they are seeing the benefits of AI themselves firsthand, outweighing a lot of previous scepticism. Therefore, far more consumers are more open to AI and like the increased customer experience it offers.

However, without the right kind of data, AI will never be able to provide meaningful insights that can help brands create the personalised experiences that build business growth, provide consumer value and develop customer loyalty. Consumers are far more likely to share their data when they know that doing so will provide benefits to them, in terms of cost savings, better customer care and closer connections to brands they love. Transparency is needed from brands as it’s crucial in gaining trust. Sharing how data is being used when consumers first interact with a company means those brands that provide transparency and direct value will enjoy the kind of wide-reaching brand loyalty that only comes from more personalised, value-oriented interactions.

It is also important that consumer data isn鈥檛 seen in isolation. It can span engagements across customer service, marketing and sales transactions. So, it鈥檚 important it is not siloed by companies and covers multiple communications channels the consumer uses to interact with brands.

, Senior Sales Lead, Africa & Israel for 鈥� a global communications platform as a service (CPaaS) leader 鈥� says: 鈥淢odern customer engagement has to enable rich, interconnected, omnichannel communication across multiple channels for a personalised experience. So, to gain a full 360-degree view of the customer, including their prior engagements and sentiment, a brand need access to consolidated omnichannel data.鈥�

He cites, for example, the retail opportunity to generate targeted digital marketing, linked directly to sales, customer verification, delivery confirmation and engagement, returns, complaints and customer service. However, consolidating and integrating disparate systems and data plus integrating and automating key processes to achieve this can prove challenging.

鈥淥rganisations need to choose solutions designed to integrate and deliver business value through improved customer engagement. Their customer experience strategy should be supported by established partners who have the expertise to guide them and the advanced technologies to support their business strategies,鈥� he adds.

, Sales Leader, at , adds: 鈥淲ith ever-improving and sophisticated algorithms, we can now better understand customers, anticipate their needs while providing a human-like conversational interaction. Yet, complex and tailored solutions that cater to unique business requirements demand a vast and composable partner ecosystem. Intelligent customer experience comes from working with technology partners that understand individual industry needs, providing connections across departments and their technologies. Working with the best technology partners that can provide integrated operational and contextual data from across the entire enterprise with AI insights to support a seamless customer experience is therefore critical to success.鈥�

It is therefore vital that any business that wants to have an intelligent customer experience approach must support current and future growth and have feature-rich, composable, core platform capabilities. This allows customisation at a flexible pace through vetted, certified and integrated technology partners.

Sinch, recognised as a leader in the , and in the , is the only 麻豆原创-endorsed contact centre solution that works with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, 麻豆原创 CRM and 麻豆原创 Service Cloud. With out-of-the-box integration with 麻豆原创, Sinch supports omnichannel contact centre communication across channels, including telephony, e-mail, chat, video, SMS and a broad range of messaging apps. It also supports RCS communication 鈥� the next generation of SMS that is聽聽in the near future. Sinch is also the partner for SMS and WhatsApp. Its own chatbot solution 鈥� Sinch Chatlayer 鈥� is pre-integrated with Sinch Contact Centre to deliver 24/7 human-like voicebot and chatbot conversations.

麻豆原创 Customer Experience Partner Director EMEA South, says: 鈥淎s a key partner, Sinch fits perfectly into 麻豆原创’s customer experience strategy, the Sinch Contact Pro solution together with its AI-enabled Chatlayer, gives 麻豆原创’s Service Cloud customers the opportunity to communicate with their customers on all mobile channels and reduce the number of calls to customer service by approximately 80% 鈥� a true customer experience moment.鈥�

Sinch and 麻豆原创 will co-host a webinar for South African organisations, focusing on the future of customer engagement, on 21 September 2023. For more information and to register for this event, click聽.

The post Smart Partnerships Key to Next-generation Customer Experience appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.