Broadcasting
Rise of the Machines – Chatbots Slated to Dominate Customer Service Channels by 2027
By George Muhia, Industry Lead – Africa Digital Natives at Infobip
A survey conducted by Gartner has found that chatbots will become the primary customer service channel for about a quarter of the world’s organisations by the year 2027, having evolved over the past decade into a critical technology component of a service organisation’s strategy.
George Muhia
There can be little doubt that when designed and deployed correctly, chatbots can enhance the Customer Experience (CX) and drive positive customer emotion at a lower cost than live interactions.
However, to effectively deploy and measure chatbot performance, Customer Service and Support (CSS) leaders must create an appropriate deployment strategy based on use cases and service interactions’ complexity.
The rise of chatbots represents a major shift in the way that businesses interact with customers. By leveraging the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) and natural language processing capabilities, chatbots can provide faster, personalised, and more convenient customer service experiences.
Businesses will undoubtedly reap the benefits of chatbots over traditional service channels, including 24/7 availability, instantaneous responses, and the ability to consistently deliver a standardised reply. Multilingual capabilities allow chatbots to not only provide support across many different languages, but also communication based on regions, accents and dialects. This broadens the reach of the customer service function and enhances accessibility to key services.
Evolving role of humans
The rise of chatbots does not necessarily spell the end for human customer service agents but will rather see an evolution of their role. While chatbots will take over mundane and repetitive tasks, humans will be freed up to focus on complex issues and will step in where customers require specialised attention or to deal with sensitive situations that need human judgment, emotional intelligence, or critical thinking.
To deploy chatbots effectively, organisations will need to invest in the right chatbot building platforms that will leverage AI and natural language processing capabilities. At the same time, humans will still play a critical role in the training and supervision of chatbots. Businesses will thus need to retain the right skills to refine and update their chatbots, constantly improving their conversational abilities.
In order to deliver a high-quality CX, businesses will have to continually monitor and measure the performance of their chatbots to ensure they are working accurately, consistently and within the ethical confines of the engagements happening across their various channels. This means tracking metrics such as response times, customer satisfaction rates and conversion rates, while also making adjustments as needed to improve performance.
Advanced language models
The emergence of ChatGPT and similar advanced language models has attracted much attention, mainly due to the fact that these AI-driven chatbots have been trained on such huge data sets and have access to the entire internet. ChatGPT also rates highly on contextual understanding, doing a good job of capturing, interpreting, and understanding the context of a conversation. Being able to effectively generate responses aligned with a conversation’s history makes engagement more human-like and coherent.
What makes models like ChatGPT even more formidable is a capability called “zero shot learning”, which is the ability to generalise from limited examples or even to provide answers to topics it has not been exposed to. Hence, such advanced language models are attractive for businesses that want to leverage AI for routine transactions and free up resources for more complex issues.
However, the independence of these models raises questions about their ability to be controlled and whether at some point they will become better than human intelligence or problematic in some way. Unfortunately, there is no clear answer at this stage.
The overarching goal for the development of AI has always been for the technology to complement human beings, rather than to create a situation where it surpasses or exceeds human intelligence.
Yet, the continued development of AI systems does raise ethical questions and makes a strong case for safeguarding policies and procedures to be put in place to regulate what these AI models are ultimately able to do. Still, the optimistic view remains that the combination of humans and AI could provide solutions to even the most complex problems.
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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