In Africa, like everywhere else in the world, artificial intelligence (AI) is moving up the agenda as companies, entrepreneurs and governments work out how to keep pace with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. While the continent has a long way to go when it comes to AI adoption, these technologies already play a prominent role in many individual organizations: Nigerian mobile-lending platform Carbon uses machine learning to evaluate credit applications, South African fashion retailers rely on algorithms to predict the next season's top sellers and Kenyan ride-hailing app Little has implemented AI to assess driver performance. For the continent to remain relevant on the global stage, it is not only vital that companies embrace AI, but also that local entrepreneurs have equity in these technologies. That said, building an AI-powered start-up in Africa comes with a unique set of challenges not experienced by entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, particularly in terms of raising capital, human resources and market receptiveness. Entrepreneur Vian Chinner has first-hand experience of both worlds.

A few decades ago, if you were to think of artificial intelligence, you would most likely automatically think of robots taking over the world or machines that can talk to you. This is probably due to the way AI is depicted in pop culture, as movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and iRobot have become international box-office hits. Although we won't necessarily see robots walking in the street next year, or be fighting wars against cyborgs, Hollywood did get one thing right: AI is officially taking over. Artificial intelligence has extraordinary capabilities of being able to complete tasks that humans just cannot do. We are starting to see AI be incorporated into mainstream business models, due to its vast capacity to be able to process large amounts of data in a fast and efficient way.

All retailers have models for predicting market response to new products, but with cutting-edge new fashion items and revolutionary products that have no historical sales data, it can be difficult to gauge the market success the items might enjoy. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the answers, says Vian Chinner, CEO of local start-up Xineoh. AI tools – the evolution of early recommendation engines – are already delivering on their potential to accurately predict customer behaviour, improve retail sales and enhance customer experience. Born-in-SA Xineoh, whose team of data scientists has gained global acclaim for their pioneering predictive algorithms, is already helping South African organisations improve their ability to predict customer behaviour. In fact, Chinner is so confident of the solution's ability to deliver measurable improvements that he offers new customers a money-back guarantee of satisfaction.

Suddenly it's all about small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) as this oft-overlooked sector of the global economy now takes center stage. In the FinTech world, a swathe of products are being launched to suit the sector, be that blockchain-based ideas to speed up invoice payment or access to capital funds that were previously unavailable. Now the AI world is joining in with promises of predicting consumer behavior geared towards SMEs who have to compete with tech giants that mop up the best data scientists and their algorithms. The current state of play means SMEs find it hard to compete with the cost, complexity and consulting taken by big enterprises. So step forward tech company Xineoh that says it has developed a platform for predicting customer behaviour with AI'which allows businesses to out-predict their competition thus allowing them to maximize efficiency and customer satisfaction'. Its so-called bespoke AI solutions on Xineoh's platform can be implemented rapidly without the cost, complexity and consulting required by other methods.

Suddenly it's all about small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) as this oft-overlooked sector of the global economy now takes center stage. In the FinTech world, a swathe of products are being launched to suit the sector, be that blockchain-based ideas to speed up invoice payment or access to capital funds that were previously unavailable. Now the AI world is joining in with promises of predicting consumer behavior geared towards SMEs who have to compete with tech giants that mop up the best data scientists and their algorithms. The current state of play means SMEs find it hard to compete with the cost, complexity and consulting taken by big enterprises. So step forward tech company Xineoh that says it has developed a platform for predicting customer behaviour with AI'which allows businesses to out-predict their competition thus allowing them to maximize efficiency and customer satisfaction'.

Artificial intelligence has been shaking up the marketing world for the last few years, helping automate menial, repetitive tasks, inform better creative decisions, and predict revenue projections. But many of the tools available for that latter category, namely, predictive analytics, have a less-than-stellar accuracy rate. South Africa-based Xineoh has developed a platform for predicting customer behavior with AI. The company claims its technolgoy is more accurate than any other solution available. Xineoh was founded in 2010 and raised $2 million from U.S. and Canadian investors in June 2017.

Thanks to recent improvements in internet connectivity and the emergence of numerous global big-hitters, South Africa has finally made a name for itself in the technological space. But while one might expect the country's'next big thing' to be found in tech-centric cities like Stellenbosch, it's in fact in an unassuming corner of Bloemfontein where the foundations for South Africa's own Silicon Valley are being laid. Founded in 2014, Bloem-based performance marketing company Xineoh is making waves internationally thanks to its unique vectorization algorithm, which has already generated in excess of $30 million in revenue for clients across the globe, attracting the interest of investors, with $2million received in backing to date in 2017. A pioneer in the AI and machine learning space, Xineoh's distinctive algorithm bears similarities to those used by the likes of Amazon.com and Netflix, tapping into user behaviour to predict potential purchasing behaviour and serve users bespoke information likely to incite conversion. Yet unlike these tried and tested models, Xineoh's algorithm relies on available rather than inputted information, creating associations based on the way other users have interacted with the same product or service, thus enabling it to be used across a wide variety of industries and generate uncannily accurate recommendations.