TECNO has launched its new AI tools at the University of Nairobi, specifically designed to work even without an internet connection. These features aim to help students, small business owners, and parents by handling daily tasks like schoolwork, health searches, and business record-keeping directly on the phone.
“AI should not be only for expensive devices. It should help a student revise, a trader track sales, a parent translate information, or a creator make better content,” said Elvis Ndekwe, TECNO AI Product Operations Officer.
“Our goal is to make AI simple, useful, and available to more Kenyans”.
A report by research firm Omdia shows that high data costs and poor internet signals often stop Kenyans from using new technology. To solve this, TECNO built its AI to run “on-device.”
This means the phone handles the thinking locally instead of sending information to distant servers over the internet.
By moving these tasks to the phone itself, the system ensures that users can access helpful tools even when they have no airtime or data bundles. This approach makes the technology reliable for people who cannot always afford to stay online.
The new system provides specific tools across three areas to help Kenyans grow their income and well-being:
Small Business Support: The AI acts as a Virtual Consultant by reading payment messages and SMS to provide automatic record-keeping and M-Pesa-linked money summaries. This helps small traders track sales and manage their cash without using the internet.
Education: Students can use the Ella AI assistant to turn long documents and YouTube videos into short study notes. This provides a 24/7 tutor that works even when the phone is offline.
Healthcare: To help families get wellness advice without traveling long distances to a clinic, the system provides voice-guided health tips and support in local languages.
A major part of the launch is making the phone understand how Kenyans actually speak. The system has been trained on local data to recognize Swahili and Sheng. It also understands “code-switching,” which is the common habit of mixing local languages with English in the same sentence.
To make photography more accurate, the Universal Tone feature ensures the camera captures natural skin tones for people with darker complexions, regardless of the lighting in markets or streets.
This fixes a common problem where global camera software often makes dark skin look unnatural or grey.
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