Chatbot in South Africa (RSA): Top 9 Vendors in 2024

Customers prefer interactive communication and value immediate responses. 61% of customers would switch to a company’s competitor after just one “bad” customer experience, like a delayed response.¹ 

If you are a South African business, you’re in a region with a high² percentage of messaging app usage, and high interest in chatbots³ So, you should take advantage of your audience’s comfortability with conversational AI tools. 

This article explores the top 9 chatbot vendors that cater to the South African market.

Top 9 vendors of chatbot in South Africa

Table features:

Our table is in descending order of employee count.

The list includes 3 types of chatbot companies: 

• Global conversational artificial intelligence providers with offices in South Africa 
• Regional conversational AI tech providers that provide services to South Africa
• Local conversational AI agencies/chatbot providers

We narrowed the shortlist by vendors’:

• # of reviews on review aggregator websites like G2, Capterra, TrustRadius, etc. 
• # of employees on LinkedIn
• Integration with popular messaging apps, like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger
• Support of click-to-chat ads that directs user to a chatbot when they click on social media ads

Global conversational AI/chatbot providers

1. IBM Watson Assistant

IBM Watson Assistant is one of the biggest global chatbot vendors.

Pros

• Ease of setup: The no-code development platform, and pre-built configurations, lets citizen developers easily build bots and deploy them.⁴

• Cognition: Besides executing rule-based tasks, ML algorithms enable IBM Watson to learn from data to improve its performances.⁵

• Integrability: Deployable on various messaging channels and devices to provide a consistent omnichannel customer experience with text and voice.⁶

Cons

• Expensive: IBM Watson Assistant’s price can deter SMEs with limited budgets.⁷

• Data heavy: Especially for more cognitive applications, it needs large amounts of data, posing its own collecting challenges.⁸

• Lack of analytics: The Analytics features only offer a primitive visibility into the performance of the bot.⁹

2. Microsoft Azure Bot Service

Azure AI Bot Service is another popular platform, similar to IBM Watson Assistant, in terms of its low-code development and cognitive features.

Pros

• Integration with Microsoft Suite: Easy integration with MS applications like Skype, Outlook, and Microsoft teams, in addition to other popular platforms.¹⁰

• Flexible pricing: Usage-based pricing lets users pay only for what/how much they use the chatbot and its different features.¹¹

Cons

• Little documentation: Developer documentation, and community support for DIY troubleshooting, is limited.¹²

• Difficult customization: Customization can be limited and difficult, especially if users aren’t familiar with the platform’s SDK¹³

Regional conversational AI/chatbot providers

3. FCB.ai

FCB.ai’s chatbot can integrate with 21 third-party applications for enhanced versatility in insurance and financial institutions. For example, it can integrate with a cryptographic tool for document and signature authentication during the KYC process.

We can’t provide user-based pros and cons of FCB.ai because we were unable to find any reviews on tech review websites.

4. Proto

Proto operates in Africa and Southeast Asia, offering standard features like:

• Agent takeover
• Including media, buttons, links, and surveys into the conversation
• Automated ticketing

We cannot provide user-based pros and cons of Proto because they don’t have reviews.

Local conversational AI/chatbot providers

5. Botlhale AI

Botlhale AI is a voice-enabled, no-code chatbot that, besides English, supports 8 African languages of:

• IsiZulu
• IsiXhosa
• Xitsonga
• Sepedi
• siSwati
• Tshivenda
• Sesotho
• Setswana

Botlhale AI has been used by companies in telecommunication, banking, and finance sectors.  

We can’t provide user-based pros and cons of Botlhale AI because they don’t have any reviews.

6. Gotbot

Gotbot offers insurance, finance, and retail chatbots by re-configuring the SDK to fit these industries’ specific use cases. For instance, their “upselling and cross-selling” feature can be tweaked to suggest insurance packages, financial instruments, or consumer products.

We cannot provide user-based pros and cons of Gotbot because they don’t yet have reviews.

7. BotsZA

BotsZA develops chatbots for WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Telegram, and any other API-friendly platform.

8. Hi.guru

Hi.guru’s is similar to BotsZA and Gotbot in capability. Its distinctive feature is its 3rd-party support for bots built on IBM Watson and SAP Conversational AI, where you can incorporate them into the Hi.guru platform.

We cannot provide user-based pros and cons of Hi.guru because not enough users have reviewed it yet.

Case studies of chatbot implementation in South Africa

2. Digify Africa 

Digify Africa, an EdTech company, used WhatsApp to teach digital literacy to 18-35 year old students and job seekers.¹⁴

The chatbot delivered snackable micro-lessons, interactive quizzes, push notifications, and a gamified tracking system for self-paced learning and engagement. The chatbot handled the:

• Registration of 14.3K students
• Sending of 3.4M messages
• Completion of delivering 37.3K individual topics

3. Momentum Metropolitan Life

During the pandemic, Momentum Metropolitan Life, a South African insurance firm, faced a substantial backlog of unresolved claims and high call volumes.¹⁵

In 4 months, they developed a WhatsApp bot that was able to:

• Connect to +10,000 users across different channels 
• Handle 1.8M conversations in a year, with +95% accuracy
• Provide +40,000 tax certificates and insurance policy statements on WhatsApp 

FAQ

Further reading

• Chatbot Pricing: How Much Do Different Chatbots Cost?
• Chatbot vs ChatGPT: Understanding the Differences & Features
• Top 7 Successful Commerce Chatbot Examples

External sources

External Links

• 1. “10 ways to deliver good customer service: examples, principles & definition” Zendesk. April 4, 2023.
• 2. “Here are a Few Chatbots Built by Africans that can Function in ChatGPT’s Stead.” Africa.com. April 4, 2023.
• 3. “Chatbot.” Google Trends.
• 4. “IBM watsonx Assistant Reviews” G2.
• 5. “IBM watsonx Assistant Reviews” TrustRadius.
• 6. “Peer Review for IBM watsonx Assistant.” Gartner.
• 7. “IBM watsonx Assistant Reviews” G2.
• 8. “IBM watsonx Assistant Reviews” TrustRadius.
• 9. “Peer Review for IBM watsonx Assistant.” Gartner.
• 10. “Amazon Bot Service Reviews” TrustRadius.
• 11. “Azure Bot Service Reviews” G2.
• 12. “Azure Bot Service (Microsoft Bot Framework).” TrustRadius.
• 13. “Azure Bot Service Reviews” G2.
• 14. “WhatsApp Bot Case Studies.” Digify Africa.Retrieved on September 12, 2023.
• 15. “Momentum Metropolitan Life Embraces Chatbots for Better CX.” Tata Consultancy Services. Retrieved on 12 September, 2023.