Broadcasting
Businesses must harness the power of conversational experiences to enhance customer engagement and personalisation
By Siddharth Bawa, Account Executive at Infobip
Delivering exceptional customer experiences has become crucial for businesses, with an increasing number of organisations recognising that omnipresence – offering continuous, personalised journeys on customers’ preferred channels – is key to attaining success. By embracing omnichannel communication strategies, businesses can bridge the gap between physical and digital interactions, while also reducing complexity and maintaining a personalised touch. Businesses are thus shifting their focus towards conversational experiences that enable bi-directional interactions.
Research by Accenture shows that nearly 80% of CEOs have changed or intend to change how they manage client engagement using conversational AI technologies, while a study by Deloitte found that brands that lead in personalisation improve customer loyalty 1.5 times more effectively than brands with poor personalisation.
Ultimately, conversational experiences can contribute to successful customer engagement and personalisation because humans crave connection above all else. The need to be acknowledged and understood is driven by our inherent psychological makeup. A case in point was a recent initiative by a local chocolate manufacturer to help address South Africa’s low child literacy rate by deploying a conversational chatbot that enabled learners to access stories in their home language via a mobile device. In turn, children could also submit their own stories to the chatbot, which would be added to the collection. A high engagement rate and the ultimate success of the project saw this being rolled out as a fully-fledged corporate social responsibility project by the company.
Tangible benefits
When conversational experiences are incorporated with hyper personalisation – the process of tailoring a product, service, or experience to meet the needs and preferences of individual customers – businesses can reap various tangible benefits. These include customer acquisition, cost efficiency, revenue increase and marketing return on investment. However, the biggest benefit is customer loyalty, which leads to a long term mutually beneficial relationship between client and organisation.
Yet, despite these benefits, there are still some key challenges that South African businesses face in delivering personalised messages through conversational channels.
For example, in the banking sector, many organisations still have legacy systems. Adapting these systems to current customer experience requirements is proving to be quite a challenge in many cases. Many of the challenges arise from a legacy silo structure which is still present in several banks.
In the realm of customer support, Infobip’s analysis reveals a shift towards seeking assistance on familiar conversational platforms used with friends and family. This shift underscores the preference for instant and immersive messaging experiences, evident in the remarkable 91% increase in WhatsApp Business Platform interactions for customer support. This is where we as Infobip are seeing composable platforms becoming increasingly relevant, as they can orchestrate content from multiple sources and publish it to any digital channel.
It is important that companies adopt an approach that will reduce the complexity of communication while maintaining personalised experiences in a conversational strategy. To do this, businesses should avoid the inherent difficulty of trying to manage multiple different communication channels and instead seek to unify them on a single conversational communication platform.
Key functionality
When selecting a platform for this purpose, businesses should look for key functionality, such as access to a customer data platform where they can orchestrate customer information and craft personalised journeys. They should also seek a drag and drop chatbot building tool that will enable them to generate intelligent, intuitive chatbots that can be used for support, lead generation and cross-selling. Lastly, organisations should also look for a cloud contact centre solution where their clients can transition from automated responses to a live human agent to address more complex queries.
By successfully harnessing these technologies and functionalities, a company should be able to leverage their communication platform to deliver real-time, personalised two-way conversations to their clients.
Seamless agent takeover
While the right technology, such as intelligent chatbots, is key to driving conversational experiences, organisations must also put in place strategies or techniques to ensure seamless agent takeover for a more personalised support experience in conversational interactions. This is essential because people do not want to become stuck in an endless loop and they want to have the ability to speak to a human if they start experiencing challenges in terms of what they want to achieve.
As such, organisations should adopt a strategy where agents can see the dialogue that the customer has had with the chatbot, giving them an understanding of what the customer requirement is. Many organisations now have specialised agents that sit behind the chatbot, so that a specific query can be diverted to someone who is capable of resolving it quickly when the need arises.
Even though technology is thriving and continues to evolve in all directions, we still need to maintain the human touch. Technology and automation are there to assist us as employees and customers, not to take over. Therefore, merging chatbots with the human experience is a balance that organisations need to carefully maintain.
Canal+ is to cut jobs at MultiChoice as part of a sweeping restructuring plan aimed at stabilising the African pay-TV operator, following years of operational and financial pressure.
The move comes alongside a planned $115 million capital injection, underscoring the urgency of efforts to revive the business after the French media group took control.
The planned layoffs are expected to form a core element of a broader cost-cutting and efficiency drive, as Canal+ seeks to streamline MultiChoice’s operations and improve profitability.
The restructuring signals a shift toward leaner operations, with a focus on eliminating redundancies and optimising the company’s cost base.
MultiChoice has struggled in recent years with declining subscriber numbers across key African markets, weighed down by macroeconomic pressures, currency volatility, and changing consumer behaviour.
The rise of global streaming platforms has intensified competition, chipping away at the company’s traditional pay-TV dominance.
Canal+’s intervention marks a pivotal moment for MultiChoice, reflecting a more aggressive approach to repositioning the business.
By combining fresh capital with structural reforms, the new owners are aiming to both stabilise short-term performance and lay the groundwork for longer-term growth.
The $115 million injection is expected to provide immediate financial relief, supporting operations and potential strategic initiatives.
However, the accompanying job cuts highlight the depth of the challenges facing the company and the scale of transformation required to restore competitiveness.
Nigeria has ranked first globally in the ownership of the two largest stablecoins, Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC), reflecting the country’s growing reliance on dollar-linked digital assets.
USDT, USDC
Stablecoins such as USDT and USDC are designed to maintain a fixed value against the U.S. dollar, allowing users to store money digitally while avoiding the price volatility associated with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
According to the 2026 Stablecoin Utility Report released by BVNK, about 59 percent of Nigerian crypto users hold USDT, while 48 percent own USDC, giving the country the highest combined ownership rate among all nations surveyed.
The report placed Nigeria ahead of several major economies, including Australia and India, highlighting the country’s strong adoption of dollar-denominated digital assets. Australia ranked second with 34 percent USDT ownership and 29 percent USDC, while India placed third with 30 percent USDT and 27 percent USDC holdings.
The study also examined adoption levels across other regions. Countries such as Colombia and Singapore showed strong usage of both stablecoins, while adoption levels were also notable in South Africa and the United States.
Other markets included in the analysis were Philippines, Thailand and Argentina, where stablecoin ownership has also increased significantly. Among European economies, the report said France and Germany showed moderate levels of adoption, while Latin American markets such as Mexico and Brazil recorded smaller but growing usage rates.
The United Kingdom also appeared in the ranking with modest levels of stablecoin ownership. The report noted that USDT ownership exceeds USDC in many countries, including Nigeria, Australia, India, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Argentina and France.
However, USDC is often viewed as a more compliance-focused stablecoin because of its stronger transparency and regulatory alignment. In some markets, including South Africa, Colombia, Germany and Brazil, the report found that USDC adoption slightly exceeds USDT.
More broadly, the data suggests that stablecoin adoption is being driven largely by emerging economies rather than advanced financial markets. According to the report, countries such as Nigeria, Argentina and the Philippines are among the biggest users of stablecoins, where people increasingly rely on dollar-pegged digital assets to protect savings from currency volatility and facilitate cross-border payments.
Spotify has unveiled Nigeria-specific data from its annual Loud & Clear report, highlighting how Nigerian artists generated more than ₦60 billion in revenue from the platform alone last year, amid explosive growth in streams, local consumption, and global discovery.
The report, which analyzes millions of data points to illuminate music streaming economics, shows Nigerian artists’ revenue surged over 140% in the past two years.
This boom stems from rising global appeal and stronger domestic engagement, with 30.3 billion streams and 1.6 billion listening hours on Spotify in 2025. First-time discoveries of Nigerian music hit 1.3 billion, up 26% from 2024.
Locally, Nigerian tracks dominated Spotify Nigeria’s Daily Top 50, accounting for over 80% of features, while consumption of homegrown artists jumped 170% year-on-year.
“Nigeria’s music scene thrives on creativity, innovation, and global influence,” said Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, Spotify’s Managing Director for Africa. “Loud & Clear spotlights how artists are forging sustainable careers and deepening local ties.”
Key highlights include:
55% year-on-year growth in local streams for Nigerian female artists.
75% surge in streams for independent Nigerian artists.
Independents and indie labels earning 58% of all royalties from Nigerian artists on Spotify.
Spotify’s editorial playlists featured nearly 2,000 Nigerian artists in 2025, boosting visibility. Nigerian music appeared in 320 million global user playlists and over 12 million in Nigeria, totaling more than 60 million playlists worldwide.
The report also notes evolving tastes, with top-growing genres in Nigeria over five years including pop urbaine, alternative pop, anime, emo, and drill.
For full details, visit spotify.com/loudandclear.
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