Company eyes further investment in local business process outsourcing in burgeoning artificial intelligence space
Kenya to experience significant economic growth as Sama, a leader in providing data annotation solutions that power future AI models, confirms plans to increase investment in local business process outsourcing (BPO) Become.
Given recent work with central government officials such as the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) and the Kenya BPO Association (BPOAK),
Sama confirmed the company’s plans to continue using Kenya as a global distribution site for de-risking machine learning (ML) models.
Sama’s vice president of global delivery, Ampeth Alwala, said the company has expanded its offering to include a data annotation solution when confirming the company’s commitment.
“In Kenya, thanks to high quality human resources, Sama is now a major player in the data annotation market, offering best-in-class computer vision data labeling services. , is offered under the Validation business line, and we serve more than 25% of the Fortune 50 companies who trust Sama to help them deliver industry-leading machine learning models,” said Alwala. said Mr.
“The local BPO industry is growing at a steady rate, and the Kenya BPO Association estimates that together we will create over 1 million jobs for over $400 million in revenue,” he added. This makes the industry a significant economic player with modern global solution capabilities.”
Government supportive policies and heavy investment in infrastructure have attracted several international companies looking to set up operations in Africa. Other factors include Kenya’s strong workforce, competitive operating costs, job creation, economic growth and a favorable business environment that provides enhanced international competitiveness.
Sama, which started operations in Kenya in 2011, has since grown to more than 3,000 employees, mostly from Kenya, but more than 20 nationalities from several African countries. I have. Sama is a training data company focused on annotating data for artificial intelligence algorithms by providing computer vision solutions that enhance AI and machine learning models.
In Kenya, Sama offers a wide range of BPO services such as data validation, data curation, image and video annotation, content moderation, customer service support, data entry, software development, 3D point cloud annotation, self-driving traffic, medical technology. , agriculture and retail solutions.
“Kenya has the potential to become a major player in the global BPO market and we are excited to be part of this growth. Through a purposeful and impactful recruitment process, we reach out to people from low-income backgrounds, those who never had the opportunity to reach beyond secondary education. , and connect people who were living in extreme poverty on a fair starting salary before joining SOMA, helping create jobs,” said Wendy Gonzalez, CEO of SOMA. .
More than 25% of Fortune 50 companies, including Google, NVIDIA, General Motors, Walmart, Ford, Microsoft, eBay, Ford and Glassdoor, trust Sama to help deliver industry-leading machine learning models.
“Kenya’s skilled workforce, multilingual competence and cultural compatibility are some of the key factors contributing to Kenya’s competitive advantage in the global outsourcing landscape. We look forward to working with the government and other stakeholders to make Kenya an international BPO destination,” added Gonzalez.
Over the past decade, Kenya’s BPO industry has continued to attract a surge of global companies seeking to outsource their operations, creating numerous job opportunities and driving economic growth.
In 2020, Sama became the first AI data labeling company to achieve B Corp certification, making a formal commitment to positively impacting its employees, communities, customers and the planet. Its training and employment program was recently validated by an MIT-led randomized controlled trial.
