MTN Group has launched Africa's first Mobile Money (MoMo) artificial intelligence service or 'chatbot'.

In a statement the company confirmed that the chatbot went live in Ivory Coast in May and will be rolled out across MTN's MoMo footprint in the next few months.

The company made no specific mention of which markets will be immediately targeted.

MTN explains that the offering enables customers to engage with MTN's MoMo services, including payments, on various social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, and via SMS.

The operator's statement reads: "The service will also be included over time, in MTN's own newly released advanced instant messaging service 'Ayoba'. The chatbot is an artificial intelligence guide that assists users to navigate MTN's MoMo services and provide other useful information. This innovation leverages messaging and artificial intelligence to drive customer engagement and enhance their MTN MoMo experience."

MTN Group President and CEO, Rob Shuter said, "We are passionate about bringing the power of our mobile money solutions to more than 60 million customers across Africa over the next few years. Harnessing modern technologies like artificial intelligence can improve in scale, how MTN interacts with customers, enabling them to reach us anytime and anywhere, through a variety of channels including social networks and messaging applications. We can also harness the power of artificial intelligence to provide our customers with the right answers to their questions at the right time."

Shuter added, "We are committed to improving financial inclusion with a range of solutions aimed at addressing the needs of various market segments. While MTN has made great strides in these areas, we will continue working to deliver our vision for MTN to become one of the largest FinTech players across our footprint."