Improving Lives with AI and Financial Inclusion in Kenya

– A recent project in Kenya aims to improve lives using artificial intelligence (AI) and financial inclusion.
– By leveraging AI and smartphone usage, the initiative aims to help individuals gain access to credit.
– This is particularly beneficial for those without a credit history, such as small-scale farmers, who traditionally find it difficult to secure loans.
– The system uses data from users’ smartphones to build a credit profile, considering factors such as call and message history, the number of contacts, and the regularity of mobile usage.
– More than a million Kenyans have already benefited from the project.

AI Lending a Hand to Kenyans

Breaking Financial Barriers with a Swipe

Oh Kenya believe it? A project has rolled out to change lives, one smartphone swipe at a time! Unlike the typical AI horror stories—no, we’re not talking Skynet or the new Terminator flick—this tale centers around using AI for financial inclusion.

Those credit scores that traditionally served as gatekeepers are being side-stepped like an annoying colleague at the office party. Now, AI and smartphones are playing financial matchmaker between lenders and those typically overlooked folks, such as small-scale farmers. Which provides hope even if one’s credit history is as barren as the Sahara desert.

The system snoops through users’ call and message history, contact list, and phone usage like a virtual Sherlock Holmes, piecing together a credit profile. And it’s working; the project is already acting as a fairy godmother for over a million Kenyans!

No worries about Skynet here; this AI is all about serving humanity, not enslaving it. So here’s a toast to artificial intelligence, transforming lives faster than you can say ‘Hakuna Matata’!

Original article: https://news.microsoft.com/europe/features/improving-lives-with-ai-and-digital-and-financial-inclusion-in-kenya-one-smartphone-at-a-time