Suss Ads bets on AI to transform customer service across Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 8 — Nairobi-based advertising technology firm Suss Ads is expanding beyond advertising technology into enterprise customer-experience software, betting on artificial intelligence to help businesses manage growing volumes of customer conversations across digital platforms.

The company has launched Suss CX, an AI-powered customer-experience platform that brings conversations from WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger and Instagram into a single system.

The move marks a strategic expansion for Suss Ads as it targets growing demand for tools that can automate routine customer interactions while retaining human support for more complex enquiries.

Suss CX combines automated AI responses with a centralised inbox for customer-service teams. Businesses can configure the platform to operate entirely through automation, through human agents, or through a hybrid model in which AI handles routine enquiries before escalating more complex conversations to staff.

The platform also provides real-time visibility into customer conversations, including recurring questions, complaints and customer-service performance.

Suss Ads Founder and Managing Partner Dennis Maina said the company is responding to the fragmentation created by the growing number of channels through which customers interact with brands.

“WhatsApp is becoming a core layer of customer-experience infrastructure for businesses. But customers don’t interact with brands through one channel alone,” Maina said.

“Our goal with Suss CX is to give businesses one place where AI and human teams can manage those conversations regardless of where the customer chooses to engage.”

From adtech to customer experience

The expansion represents a broader shift in Suss Ads’ business, moving from helping brands reach consumers to helping them manage interactions after that engagement.

The company initially developed its customer-experience technology around WhatsApp and piloted the solution with betting firm SportPesa before expanding deployments across Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Suss Ads is now targeting sectors including banking, betting and gaming, telecommunications, retail, e-commerce and travel, where businesses typically handle large volumes of customer enquiries across multiple markets and communication channels.

By consolidating those conversations, the company sees an opportunity for businesses to gain a clearer view of customer-service performance and the cost of handling interactions across different platforms.

The platform also supports WhatsApp Embedded Signup, enabling eligible businesses to connect their Meta business assets and phone numbers to Suss CX through Meta’s Business Platform onboarding process, subject to Meta’s verification requirements.

AI adoption meets demand for human support

The expansion comes as businesses increasingly experiment with generative AI to reduce the cost and workload associated with customer service.

However, companies are also balancing automation with consumer demand for access to human support.

A Gartner survey of 3,566 business and consumer customers conducted in February and March 2026 found that half of respondents said interactions were easier when companies used generative AI.

At the same time, 87 percent said access to a human agent remained essential when businesses deployed generative AI for customer service.

Suss Ads is positioning its platform around that tension rather than treating AI as a replacement for customer-care teams.

“The opportunity is not to replace customer-care teams,” Maina said. “It is to give them technology that can handle repetitive conversations at scale and allow people to focus on interactions where human judgement is actually required.”

Under the hybrid model, AI can respond to frequently asked questions and other routine enquiries, while conversations requiring judgement, negotiation or specialised assistance can be transferred to human agents.

WhatsApp drives opportunity in emerging markets

WhatsApp remains an important channel for businesses operating in emerging markets.

Research by Pew Research Center across eight middle-income countries found that a median 73 percent of adults used WhatsApp, compared with 62 percent for Facebook, 36 percent for TikTok, 29 percent for Instagram and 15 percent for Telegram.

The high penetration of messaging platforms creates an opportunity for businesses to use customer conversations not only as a service channel but also as a source of insight into consumer behaviour.

For Suss Ads, bringing those conversations into a single platform could allow companies operating across several African markets to manage customer engagement without maintaining separate systems for each channel.

The company expects AI-powered customer engagement to become an increasingly important part of its technology business as companies look to automate high-volume interactions while retaining human agents for cases that require intervention.

The move also reflects a broader push by African technology companies into enterprise software as businesses across the continent digitise customer-service operations.

For Suss Ads, the launch of Suss CX signals a move beyond its traditional advertising technology business into a potentially broader enterprise technology market, with the company seeking to build products that can support businesses operating across African markets and beyond.