MTN Group has embarked on an exciting journey to leverage responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reshape Africa at the leading edge of technology, igniting change, inspiring progress and creating a brighter future for generations to come.

“AI is no longer an enabler — it’s the engine reshaping businesses, redefining value creation and rewriting the rules of global innovation and competitiveness,” says MTN Group Digital Infrastructure CEO and GCTIO Mazen Mroué. “AI is not just about automation — it’s about boosting human potential, increasingly becoming seamlessly embedded into our daily activities, decisions and experiences, transforming how we live and work.”

He says AI is augmenting human intelligence like never before and “we at MTN are developing AI for Africa by Africans, unlocking sustainable value for all”.

According to PwC’s Global Artificial Intelligence Study, AI can transform global productivity and economic activity and is predicted to add US$15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

Assuming Africa captures 10% of the global AI market, a recent SAP report projects that AI could add US$1.5 trillion to the continent’s economy by 2030. The SAP report also predicts that 230 million new digital jobs will be created in Africa by 2030. Statista projects that the AI market in Africa could reach US$4.51 billion in 2025 and grow to US$18.7 billion by 2030.

As AI adoption accelerates, the GSMA says it is crucial that it is designed, developed and deployed with ethical considerations in mind. As a result, the industry association collaborated with a group of operators and others to co-create a Responsible AI Maturity Roadmap, supporting the advancement of innovative and trustworthy AI applications.

MTN’s AI journey is designed around three key principles, in line with global best practice. These encompass a comprehensive governance structure aspiring to achieve ethical, effective and safe AI adoption; an agile and scalable operating model for measured AI implementation; and targeted use cases that deliver tangible value.

MTN has developed a world-class Responsible AI Policy to guide AI deployment and usage. It has also set up a special sub-committee of the Executive Committee to provide oversight, execution governance and impact management of the Group’s IT governance, with a special focus on AI.

As data quality, talent excellence, strategic partnerships and robust infrastructure are all essential to a successful AI implementation journey, MTN has designed an appropriate operating model and established an in-house AI Centre of Excellence (CoE) alongside a Cloud CoE to co-ordinate AI activities across the Group, supported by an internal Software Solutions team equipped with more than 300 engineers.

Driven to deliver tangible value for customers, communities and the business, MTN has identified numerous AI use cases across key business domains including Network, Finance, HR and Commercial functions.

“At MTN Group, under the group-wide transformation programme branded as ‘MTN Genova’, we are operationalising AI at scale to boost productivity, elevate customer experience, reduce costs and accelerate revenue generation,” says Mroué.

Through our strategic partnerships, we have adopted enterprise-grade Open AI and cloud-native services to implement AI and generative AI solutions powered by large and small language models (LLMs and SLMs). In parallel, we are promoting innovative collaborations with start-ups focused on local language LLMs to elevate customer experience solutions.

In the network domain, MTN is promoting interesting use cases like intelligent AI-enabled fuel consumption savings for data centres in South Africa; AI-driven cell site dynamic energy management in Benin; AI-driven fibre cut sensing in Côte d’Ivoire; and network traffic balancing and optimisation in Nigeria.