Features

(l-r) Nkanyezi Masango, Melissa Carney, Kabelo Moshapalo, and Tristan Vogt

When news about KAIIA, a South African AI platform capable of understanding local culture and communicating in the 11 official languages, was first “leaked” to the public, some couldn’t wait to get their hands on the home-grown virtual assistant. Users quickly noticed that while the platform functioned like any other LLM, it was fixated on fried chicken. It turned out that KAIIA (Kentucky AI Integrated Assistant) was part of a KFC advertising campaign and that the LLM would do anything to experience the taste of the Colonel's chicken with its 11 herbs and spices.

This custom-trained LLM was the brainchild of a d a agency Ogilvy South Africa, specifically its Innovation Lab, which brings creatives and technologists together to solve clients’ problems. The labs are also spaces where the Ogilvy team can inspire clients to explore how to engage their customers in different ways, says Melissa Carney, MD of the company’s digital services offering, Ogilvy One. “We know that there are loads of channels you can use to reach your audience, but many of the different channels we're dealing with are very congested,” she says. “With the Innovation Lab, we try to look at how we can create something new. I don’t want to use the word disruptive, but it’s something that’s more engaging than a Facebook post or a billboard.” Carney played a big role in setting up the labs and says the aim was to bring together teams of developers, technologists and creatives to experiment, be inspired, immerse themselves in technology, and try to solve problems differently.