A new way for businesses to explore Africa has been unveiled, and it’s powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
Quixto allows anyone to quickly understand key economic, business, technological and political developments in any African country – then stay up to date by following AI-enhanced news coverage.
The technology, which has entered its public beta phase, has been developed by Cape Town software company Predix Communications, which also developed the popular VeriClip media monitoring service.
Stephen Hall, the founder and CTO of Predix Communications, explains that Quixto is aimed at business users interested in trade and investment opportunities in Africa and emulates physical exploration. “You move progressively from a starting point, which is a particular country, then explore the territory – be it geographical or conceptual – by going from place to place, one step at a time,” he says.
“You might not know where you’re going to end up, but Quixto knows the important features in the terrain. It comes with you on your journey, offering suggestions – the names of companies or people, for example – that are related to where you are on the map.
“It makes that easier by keeping track of the path you’ve followed from your starting point to your current point. It’s like a trail of breadcrumbs you can follow if you decide to backtrack.”
Maps show the way
Quixto explorers are assisted by a map of Africa, where you select a country, and a feature map, which suggests concepts for further exploration. Concepts are generated by AI that digests news coverage from across Africa every hour and identifies recurring themes such as companies, people or phrases.
“Click on a concept and a list of the 10 most relevant news snippets from the past year instantly appears,” says Hall. “You can shorten this period to as little as the last 24 hours, but another option is to keep exploring, narrowing down your area of interest.”
Another click on the first concept adds it to the breadcrumb trail, or path, at which point the feature map is redrawn to suggest further exploration concepts that can be added to the path.
Each concept on the feature map is linked to related concepts identified by the AI engine in the news coverage it has analysed. Quixto users can also add their own search terms if the topic they’re interested in does not appear on the feature map.
“It’s a more useful and powerful way to navigate a large amount of information than reading a list of articles,” says Hall. “You’re not searching blind without a context, and context enhances relevance.
“The other key advantage over a simple web search is the type of sources Quixto uses. It focuses on news sites covering business and related areas such as politics and technology, which leads to more relevant results. Importantly, none of the sources we use is behind a paywall.”
Starting with Quixto (https://quixto.com) is as easy as clicking on a country then following prompts, but the website also includes a tour describing how it works.
“For someone who’s looking to invest, trade, set up an operation or analyse the competition, Quixto offers an easy way to conduct up-to-the-minute, accurate research in a very unconstrained way,” says Hall.
