Telecom
Salesforce Launches Trusted Generative AI for Customers in Slack
- AI-powered search that delivers personalised, intelligent responses to any question: Users can ask a question conversationally and get a concise answer based on relevant Slack messages. Users can find what they need faster, whether they want to learn about a new marketing campaign, get up to speed on company policies, glean insights about past decisions from historical context, or define unfamiliar acronyms.
- Channel recaps that generate key highlights from accessible channels: Users can catch up on unread messages, summarise the last seven days, or set a custom date range to summarise. Users can quickly catch up after time away from work, get up to speed on a new project, or jump in quickly to help resolve time-sensitive issues.
- Thread summaries that catch users up on long conversations: Users can get the gist of a long conversation in one click, and clear sources are included in each summary, allowing users to dive deeper into a highlight. Users can instantly summarise key decisions and next steps from a thread with a lot of back and forth, get up to speed on a customer support ticket, or catch up on a team stand-up to get a bird’s eye view of priorities.
- Easily identify and bring in the right subject matter expert when a customer has a specific question or concern during a deal cycle.
- Summarise an account channel and get the context they need to prepare for a customer meeting more effectively.
- Generate key takeaways from a long discussion about deal progress to help keep the team on track.
- Find answers in past incident channels to uncover potential solutions and apply learnings.
- Get the right information they need so they can quickly get situated and jump in to help find a resolution.
- Recap an incident channel and use it as a starting point to draft a root-cause analysis faster.
Slack’s trusted and secure AI experience: Trust is the number one value at Salesforce, and Slack is committed to building AI products safely, responsibly, and ethically.
- Slack AI runs on Slack’s infrastructure and upholds the same security practices and compliance standards that customers expect.
- Slack AI’s large language models (LLMs) are hosted directly within Slack, ensuring customer data remains in-house and exclusively for that organisation’s use.
- Customer data remains siloed and will not be used to serve other clients, directly or indirectly.
- Slack AI does not use customer data for LLM training purposes.
The future of native generative AI in Slack: More features that help users summarise and prioritise information are on the horizon. Soon, Slack AI will create digests summarising key highlights from channels that users want to stay informed on but may not require immediate attention, enabling them to stay up to speed on what they could otherwise miss while focusing on their top priorities. Additionally, Slack is building a native AI integration with Einstein Copilot, a new conversational AI assistant for Salesforce CRM, that will provide answers to questions directly in Slack that are grounded in trusted customer data.
- “Slack AI is not only a huge productivity boost — it’s easy to use, right where we already work in Slack. Our team loves how quickly they can find answers, which translates to faster decision-making and a greater focus on work that really drives an impact.” – Kate Earle Jensen, Head of Sales and Partnerships, Anthropic
- “During the pilot program, we experienced firsthand the major productivity gains that Slack AI could drive for our business. Slack AI has helped speed up our employees’ work exponentially.” – Zach Hyman, Co-CEO, SpotOn
- “At Perplexity, we’re building the next generation answer engine, applying the most advanced LLMs to make knowledge instant and accessible. Now with Perplexity Push, we’re delivering an enterprise integration that brings AI-powered insights directly into Slack. Teams can easily stay in-the-know on topics they care about where conversations and collaboration already happens.” – Aravind Srinivas, CEO, Perplexity
- “Slack AI helps users unlock the full potential of company knowledge in Slack, all while supporting existing security, privacy, and compliance controls.” — Irwin Lazar, President and Principal Analyst, Metrigy
Telecom
Catholic Bishops Raise Caution on Use of Artificial Intelligence
Most Reverend Lucius Ugorji, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), the Archbishop of Owerri has raised caution on the deployment of Artificial Intelligence.
Ugorji called for a balance that prioritises human welfare alongside technological progress, mindful of ethics and morals, as well as risks such as job displacement, threat to world peace, spread of falsehood through propaganda, manipulation of the human person, and privacy concerns through advanced hacking and deepfakes.
The clergyman raised the concern during the ComWeek Public Lecture in Abuja on Artificial Intelligence, noting that the exclusive use of technology in religious formation, pastoral care, and education has enhanced theological knowledge, accessibility and mission of the universal church.
Keynote Speaker at the event, Father Anthony Akinwale, deputy vice chancellor of Augustine University Lagos, dismissed the speculations that the intellectual roles of humans will be replaced by Artificial Intelligence, explaining that AI relied on humans to function and did not have a mind of its own to choose to or not to obey commands with which it was programmed.
Akinwale further cautioned that AI should be solely used for the common good of mankind and not for destructive purposes.
Most Reverend David Ajang, chairman on Social communication of the Catholic Bishops Conference, called for a reflection on the power of communication as a divine gift, “one that holds the potential to bridge divides, enlighten minds and unite hearts in the pursuit of truth and common good”.
Telecom
9mobile Refreshes Its MoreBusiness ComboPak with Additional Benefits
9mobile, Nigeria’s customer-centric telecommunications company has refreshed its ‘MoreBusiness ComboPak’ offerings with additional benefits to enable new and potential customers enjoy more value on calls, data, SMS and CUG for their Businesses.
The ‘MoreBusiness ComboPak’ product offering is a flexible and customizable plan with an array of add-on services. The plan gives customers benefits of extra cost-saving tariff within the bundle, and 100% bonus data upon repurchase of select bundles.
With the update, 9mobile customers on this plan will also enjoy free incoming calls while roaming on select networks in the following 10 countries: UK, UAE, South Africa, Kenya, Spain, Egypt, France, Germany, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia when they recharge ₦5,000 and above in a month.
A further benefit of the plan is the ‘Add-on solutions’. With this, companies and institutions will enjoy seamless business operations’ continuity and optimization through Close User Group (CUG), Fleet Tracking, Cloud PBX, Cloud Services, and Device Financing. Others are International Call Bundles, Roaming Bundles, and Special International Destinations Calling.
Commenting on the development, Nneka Owolabi, Director Enterprise Business, highlighted the telco’s unwavering commitment to ensure customers and subscribers enjoy premium customer experience, and wholesome value for their subscription on the 9mobile network.
“At 9mobile we have proven time and again that premium customer experience is important for us. It is the essence of our operations. That is why we have reintroduced the ‘MoreBusiness ComboPak’ for customers and subscribers, particularly businesses to enjoy value for their loyalty to us, and upscale their businesses”, he said.
Owolabi also stated that the ComboPak combines all business needs in one affordable bundle with cheaper voice calls, data subscription, SMS, and CUG, saying “It’s a ComboPak offering that keeps you, and your business stay ahead of trend”.
“What 9mobile ‘MoreBusiness ComboPak’ does is to create and sustain an ecosystem where people, in this case, customers and subscribers, and businesses run systematically with a combination of our tools efficiently. This is certain to revolutionize the way Nigerians communicate, stay connected, and transact businesses effectively”.
Subscribers to ‘MoreBusiness ComboPak’ plan will enjoy unique voice calls, SMS & data.
The service allows flexibility to move across packages based on your needs. For ₦1,000 ComboBasic bundle cost, customers will dial *246*4*33# to enjoy 60k/MB Browsing, 12k/sec in bundle calls, 12k/sec out of bundle calls, ₦2.60/SMS, and CUG; while for ₦1,000 ComboValue bundle cost, customers will dial *246*4*30# to enjoy 700MB, 30 National call minutes, 11k/sec out of bundle calls, 10 National SMS, and CUG.
For customers with ₦2,000 ComboPremier bundle cost, all they need to do is to dial *246*4*33# to enjoy 2.1GB, 60 National call minutes, 11k/sec out of bundle calls, 25 National SMS, and CUG. Customers subscribing to ₦5,000 ComboBlack bundle cost will enjoy benefits of 7GB, 300 National call minutes, 11k/sec out of bundle calls, 25 National SMS, and CUG.
The unique value adds on the ‘MoreBusiness ComboPak’ plan for customers also includes: Bundled Plans – for customers to enjoy flexible and customizable plans with an array of add-on services, and extra cost saving tariff within bundle.
Unlimited Add-ons – this is Add-on solutions – include CUG, Fleet Tracking, Cloud PBX, Cloud Services, Device Financing, Shared Data, International call bundles, Roaming Bundles, and Special International Destinations Calling, for customers.
This is in addition, to free data offer which is a 100% bonus data upon repurchase of select bundles.
Convenience has been embedded into the ComboPak plan for Subscribers also to check account balance by dialling *310#, and data balance by dialling *323#, while migration or opting out of the plan is absolutely free.
Telecom
MTN Nigeria’s Uto Ukpanah Named Global Corporate Secretary of the Year
MTN Nigeria’s Company Secretary, Uto Ukpanah, is the first ever winner of the “Global Corporate Secretary of the Year” award by the Corporate Secretaries International Association (CSIA). She was honoured with the award at an event on April 23rd, 2024, in Kuala, Lumpur, Malaysia.
The CSIA Global Awards was instituted to recognise the efforts of corporate secretaries and governance professionals that not only impact their organizations but also international platforms. Of the three main award categories- Global Corporate Secretary of the Year, Rising Corporate Secretary of the Year and Governance Professional of the Year, Uto was awarded the Global Corporate Secretary of the Year for her hard work, diligence and professionalism by a distinguished jury of expert practitioners and thought leaders in the corporate governance field.
Karl Toriola, Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria congratulating her on the recognition said, “At MTN, we understand the critical role strong governance plays in driving sustainable growth and fostering trust among stakeholders. Uto’s exemplary leadership underscores our commitment to upholding the highest standards of integrity and transparency. We are proud of Uto’s commitment to corporate governance. She deserves the recognition.”
Ukpanah, the pioneer winner of this award has worked with MTN Nigeria for over 18 years. She is a corporate lawyer with extensive experience in company and commercial law. Her contributions in developing sustainable corporate governance structures in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors have been instrumental in fostering transparency and ethical business practices.
Ukpanah’s dedication to ethics and corporate social responsibility advisory services has positioned her as a respected leader in the industry, driving positive change and setting high standards for corporate excellence. This is seen in her active participation on the ‘Code of Corporate Governance Committee,’ ‘9to5 Woman,’ ‘Bankers Committee on Corporate Governance’, among others.
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