The latest update introduces a reimagined user experience designed to make collaboration easier, improve security, and deliver deeper intelligence across all 50+ applications.

With this release, Zoho One offers a more connected and context-aware environment for organisations of all sizes.

“The Zoho One update reflects how work has evolved from using individual applications to operating within a unified platform,” said Kehinde Ogundare, country head, Zoho Nigeria. “Zoho One customers are not simply licensing apps; they are choosing a solution that allows Zoho to handle the technology while they focus on productivity. The enhancements announced today deliver a cohesive experience built on unified integrations, context, and data.”

Since its launch in 2017, Zoho One has grown to support more than 75,000 organisations worldwide, with customers using an average of 22 applications within the suite.

The platform’s extensive integrations, privacy-focused architecture, and consolidated technology stack ensure reliability and consistency for businesses looking to streamline operations.

A Reimagined User Experience

Zoho One’s new interface places context at the centre of the user journey and removes traditional boundaries between applications.

Spaces now organise tools by purpose, such as Personal, Organisation, and Department-specific groups, enabling employees to access what they need without switching between apps.

A centralised search bar spans the entire ecosystem, allowing users to find information or trigger workflows instantly.

An enhanced Action Panel provides a full view of upcoming meetings, unread messages, pending tasks, and other key updates, helping employees remain informed regardless of which app they are using.

The updated Dashboard consolidates data from Zoho and third-party apps into one central hub that can be customised using pre-existing or bespoke widgets.

The platform also introduces Vani, a new visual-first collaboration space that supports brainstorming, planning, and creation through diagrams, whiteboards, mind maps, and integrated video calling.

Native Integrations for Better Security and Efficiency

Zoho One continues to strengthen its position as a unified business operating system by offering native integrations across Zoho’s suite and with third-party applications.

This reduces external entry points and supports faster anomaly detection.

With Zoho Directory included, administrators also gain a secure platform for managing workforce identity and access within the same unified system.

A central integrations panel enables administrators to monitor and configure all connections. Foundational integrations bring application-specific portals, Zoho or third-party, into a single unified portal. Practical tasks such as domain verification and authentication can now be configured more easily.

The new Smart Offboarding feature introduces outcome-based integrations, allowing organisations to transfer department ownership, manage employee device data, and determine data access rights within a single workflow, ensuring smooth transitions.

Contextual Intelligence Powered by Zia

Zia, Zoho’s AI assistant, is now accessible throughout Zoho One, providing unified intelligence that supports decision-making and improves productivity.

Zia can aggregate and contextualise information from various platforms, including third-party systems such as Google Workspace, and present it as clear, actionable insight.

Zia Hubs, the platform’s intelligent content management system, now has a dedicated space where contracts, meeting recordings, and other important assets are automatically organised. Through Zia Search, employees can quickly surface relevant information without navigating multiple locations.

Ask Zia, available from the bottom toolbar, enables prompt-based searches across Zoho One, providing quick visibility into schedules, tasks, recent interactions, and other key details.

Through the Young Creators Program, Zoho trained over 50 students across disciplines, including Computer Science, Business, and Information Technology, to build business-ready applications using Zoho Creator, the company’s low-code development platform.

The three day workshop introduced students to practical problem-solving using the latest advancements in cloud technology, enabling them to design and develop custom business solutions without advanced programming knowledge.

The program also fostered a deeper understanding of how low-code tools can support entrepreneurship and digital transformation.

“As part of our commitment to supporting local talent development in Nigeria, we are excited to collaborate with Babcock University to equip students with future-ready digital skills,” said Kehinde Ogundare, country head, Zoho Nigeria. “Through the Young Creators Program, we aim to empower young innovators to build solutions that solve real business challenges while strengthening the local technology ecosystem.”

This initiative also marks the beginning of a broader strategic collaboration between Zoho and BCED.

Both organisations will continue to work together to deliver additional training programs, interactive workshops and innovation-focused events.

Discussions are also underway to add Zoho’s apps to BCED’s entrepreneurship curriculum, ensuring that students learn how they can apply digital solutions for various business problems.

“We are committed to preparing our students for leadership in a rapidly evolving digital economy,” said Dr. Ayodeji Ajibade is the director of the Babcock Entrepreneurship Development Centre (BEDC) at Babcock University in Nigeria. “Partnering with Zoho strengthens our mission by providing students with access to industry-standard tools and practical learning experiences that bridge the gap between classroom knowledge and real-world application.”

The Young Creators Program forms part of Zoho’s global effort to promote digital literacy and support innovation among young people.

Launched in 2022, the program has trained more than 2000+ students around the world, providing them with the tools and confidence to pursue careers and entrepreneurial ventures in the technology space.

Instead of eroding safety, 84% of these businesses report stronger privacy initiatives since integrating AI into their operations.

The findings, titled The AI Privacy Equation: The Nigerian Model of Responsible AI Adoption and unveiled at Zoholics Nigeria, revealed Nigeria as a global reference point for AI adoption balanced with privacy. 

Beyond AI adoption and privacy focus, the event also celebrated another milestone for Zoho, which announced a 75% customer growth in Nigeria in 2024, one of its fastest-growing markets worldwide.

“We continue to invest in Nigeria as businesses here accelerate their adoption of technology to grow and scale,” said Kehinde Ogundare, country head, Zoho Nigeria. 

“The latest study around AI and Privacy proves that Nigerian businesses are leading the way in responsible AI adoption, as they temper the new technology with privacy measures. This mirrors Zoho’s philosophy of building contextual and privacy-first AI models that can help businesses realise tangible benefits. We infuse our AI solutions—from conversational and prescriptive to agentic and generative—with business context so that it can provide organisations with decision intelligence.”

Balancing AI With Privacy

The study, which surveyed 386 Nigerian business leaders, shows how companies are embedding AI responsibly. Ninety-four percent now have a dedicated privacy officer or team, a figure well above global averages. 

Nearly 40% allocate over 30% of their IT budgets to privacy protection, opining that governance is not a constraint but a competitive advantage.

Michael Fauscette, CEO and chief analyst of Arion Research, underscored this shift:

“The Nigerian model challenges the conventional wisdom that AI adoption requires privacy trade-offs. When 84% of organisations strengthen their privacy measures through AI implementation rather than weakening them, it demonstrates that privacy-conscious design can actually enhance AI outcomes. Nigerian businesses are proving that robust governance isn’t a constraint on innovation, it’s a competitive advantage.”

Leadership and Deployment

More than half of survey respondents were CEOs or senior executives, showing that AI adoption is being driven from the top. Unlike other markets where implementation lags, Nigeria is moving quickly from pilots to enterprise-wide rollouts. 

Thirty-one percent of businesses reported advanced integration across the organisation, while another 26.5% are deploying AI across multiple departments.

The financial services sector, which accounted for 29% of respondents, is leading the charge. Customer service automation (49%), software development (46%), and marketing optimisation (32%) are the top use cases, all designed with privacy-by-design principles.

Skills, Barriers and Regulation

On challenges, despite rapid adoption, thirty-seven percent of companies revealed a lack of technical expertise as their biggest challenge, followed closely by privacy and security issues (35%). 

To close this gap, 69% of businesses are prioritising data analysis and interpretation, 53% are focusing on AI literacy, and 40% are investing in prompt engineering for generative AI.

Regulation is also impacting behaviour. Nearly 65% of organisations say awareness has increased since Nigeria’s Data Protection Act was introduced. Many conduct regular privacy audits (57%), minimise data used in AI training (57%), and require explainability of AI decisions (52%).

Why it Matters to Zoho

For Zoho, these findings on AI adoption and privacy, align directly with its positioning. The company has consistently rejected data monetisation in favour of privacy-first design, a stance that resonates with Nigerian businesses now investing heavily in privacy-conscious AI.

Zoho’s growth in Nigeria is being driven by demand for scalable, unified solutions. Its top-performing products in the country include Zoho Workplace (enterprise email and collaboration), Zoho Books (accounting software), Zoho Campaigns (marketing automation), and Zoho One (a suite of 55+ integrated business applications). 

Key customer sectors include IT services, financial services, energy, manufacturing, real estate, media, education, and retail.

In tying AI adoption to privacy protection, Nigerian businesses are gaining global competitive advantage, and for Zoho, this validates its belief in Nigeria, both as a high-growth market and as a model for how technology and trust can advance together.

The company revealed this during its annual user conference, Zoholics Nigeria, held on Monday, September 8, 2025, in Lagos.

Kehinde Seun Ogundare, country head for Zoho Nigeria, said the company is not in the market for short-term profits. “We are not just here to make money and leave, you know, I said from the beginning,” Ogundare said.

He stressed Zoho’s guiding philosophy, “Privately Held. Publicly Responsible”, which reiterates its focus on long-term value rather than quick exits.

Key Announcements for Nigeria

Zoho outlined three major commitments to Nigerian businesses:

• Local billing and naira pricing to ease exchange-rate challenges.
• Hiring and expanding local teams to improve customer support.
• Maintaining access to 55+ products across finance, workplace, CRM, HR and collaboration tools.

The company shared growth statistics to back its local drive:

• 29 years in operation, with over 18,000 employees globally.
• Products used in more than 150 countries.
• Average customer tenure of about 45 months.
• 75 million registrations in Nigeria over the last five years.
• Local growth rates of 64.07% in 2021, 83.68% in 2022, and 74.28% in 2024.

According to Zoho, the top sectors using its software in Nigeria include services, financial services, professional services, real estate and construction, retail, energy, media, and education.

Building on One Technology Stack

Zoho emphasised that all its 55+ applications run on a single technology stack. This, it said, reduces integration costs and makes its software affordable to SMEs. 

Its “composable” product model lets customers start with individual apps, then scale into customised suites or vertical solutions. For SMEs in Nigeria, this means they can adopt an off-the-shelf bookkeeping or HR product, or commission a tailored workflow without rebuilding everything from scratch.

Spotlight on Zia AI

One of the most interesting parts of the event was Zoho’s in-house AI platform, Zia, Zoho’s AI assistant built for automation and business intelligence across its apps.

The Zia suite includes language, speech and automation tools, as well as features that allow customers to create automated assistants and custom apps. Technical features include:

• Language models available in multiple parameter sizes (1.3B, 2.6B and 7B), with plans to scale further.
• Zia ASR, a home-grown speech recogniser benchmarked by the company against global competitors on word-error-rate.
• Agent Studio and Zia Agents marketplace offering pre-built assistants for sales, marketing, UX, support and other workflows.
• Co-Creator and low-code/no-code tools to let non-developers build applications and automation.

Zoho described Zia as a practical tool which enables businesses to automate workflows, delegate routine tasks to AI assistants, and focus more on decision-making and growth.

Privacy and Infrastructure

Beyond features, Zoho stressed that it owns its full technology stack, from networks and storage to compute and applications. This, it said, helps it control costs, safeguard privacy and deliver products built for enterprise needs.

Local billing, local hiring and local support were framed as part of the same strategy, reducing total cost of ownership while making the tools more relevant to Nigeria’s business environment.

What it Means for Nigerian SMEs

For local companies, Zoho’s strategy could bring three immediate benefits:

1. Affordability: naira billing removes the pressure of paying in foreign currency.
2. Faster support: more Nigerian teams mean better response times and understanding of local challenges.
3. Customisation: the “composable” product marketplace and low-code tools make it easier to build tailored solutions without major development projects.

Zoholics Nigeria revealed that Zoho wants to be more than a global software vendor. The company is working to adapt to local realities, cut expenses for businesses, and build long-term trust.

Kehinde Ogundare, the country manager for Zoho (Nigeria), shares insights into how the company is driving growth, ensuring data security, and maintaining gender balance within its workforce. 

“The economy and the environment might not be suitable for some startups, but we are committed to providing support,” says Ogundare, stressing Zoho’s focus on helping the startup community scale despite the economic downturn.

Zoho’s Growth: The Numbers Tell a Positive Story Speaking on Zoho’s growth over the years, Ogundare noted that the company has steadily climbed in a positive direction, “In 2022, Zoho grew by 50%, which led to us acquiring an additional 100 customers. In 2023, we experienced a 31% growth, which still signifies an increase.” 

He explains that Zoho’s consistent expansion reveals the growing trust in the company’s products, with more businesses integrating Zoho solutions into their operations.

Empowering Startups Through Zoho for Startups Despite the economic challenges that have forced many startups to shut down, Zoho is focused on creating a sustainable ecosystem for entrepreneurs. 

Ogundare pointed to Zoho for Startups, a programme designed to support startup communities by offering free credits for software use.

“We offer $500 in credit to help startups pay for essential services such as CRM and operations,” Ogundare explains. This allows emerging businesses to focus on innovation without the burden of operational costs in their early stages.

Unshaking Data Security Standards In a period where data breaches are a constant threat, Ogundare assertively shares Zoho’s spotless record in data security. “To the best of my knowledge, we’ve never had any case of a data breach. Data security and privacy are at the core of our business, and we spend a lot to ensure that customer data remains safe,” Ogundare says. 

He further emphasizes that Zoho is compliant with several regulatory bodies, conducting annual security and privacy training for employees to minimize risks.

Zoho School of Learning: Training for Impact Zoho’s commitment to education is seen in its Zoho School of Learning, where over 1,600 individuals have been trained, with 75 currently employed at Zoho. “We train and we employ. But everyone is free to seek opportunities anywhere they want,” Ogundare notes. 

This initiative, although currently available only in India, has highly impacted the country’s job market and has also built a pipeline of skilled professionals who can contribute to the tech industry. Ogundare affirms that Zoho is working to expand the school of learning to other countries including Nigeria, sooner than later.

Gender Balance and Inclusion at Zoho Zoho also takes gender balance seriously, with a focus on ensuring equal opportunities in its workforce. Ogundare shares that the company’s recent 43% impact on the Nigerian job market achieved a 60:40 male-to-female ratio, and globally, Ogundare asserts that “more than 67% of our managers are women.” 

Gender equality, he stresses, is a core value at Zoho, and the company strives to reflect this in every aspect of its recruitment and management practices.

Zoho Analytics: Empowering Businesses with Data Zoho Analytics, the company’s business intelligence software, is another tool designed to assist both businesses and individuals in making informed decisions. “Whether you’re an individual or a business, Zoho Analytics helps you understand your data and make better business decisions,” Kehinde Ogundare explains. 

This innovative tool ensures that users can leverage the power of data to drive growth and efficiency.

Zoho’s Vision for the Future In its continued support of the Nigerian tech industry, Zoho’s mission to empower startups, ensure data security, and promote gender balance reiterates a huge focus to building a sustainable and inclusive future. 

For businesses and individuals alike, Zoho remains a reliable partner in scaling through the complexities brought about by economic limitations.

For over 27 years, the company has continuously expanded its product offerings and global reach, while staying focused on uplifting local communities by providing affordable and accessible technology. 

Zoho’s commitment to facilitating both global and local growth has enabled it to serve over 100 million users across 150+ countries, with a strong emphasis on customer-centric development and sustainable business practices.

Kehinde Ogundare, country head for Zoho Nigeria, highlighted the company’s commendable achievements today, at the Zoholics Lagos Press Conference, sharing detailed statistics that revealed Zoho’s impact and growth over the years.

Ogundare asserted that Zoho currently employs over 15,000 people worldwide, with a presence in 150+ countries. More than 100 million users globally rely on Zoho’s diverse suite of over 55 applications to run their daily business operations. “It’s incredible to see how our software is helping businesses globally, with more than 700,000 paying customers depending on Zoho to manage their operations.”

Since 2005, the company has continued to expand its product offerings and customer base, adding new applications such as Zoho Tables in 2024. Even during the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company developed several new tools, including Zoho Console and Zoho Remotely, which allowed businesses to continue operations seamlessly in a remote environment.

Ogundare revealed that Zoho has grown its revenue 17x over the past decade, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43% globally over the last three years. “Despite the global uncertainties and economic challenges, particularly in the tech industry, Zoho’s growth has been steady. In 2023 alone, we achieved a 31% growth in Nigeria and 43% in three years,” Ogundare explained.

In Nigeria, the Zoho ecosystem has expanded commendably, with businesses increasingly relying on Zoho’s suite of tools to enhance their efficiency and performance. 

Zoho Workplace, which includes productivity tools such as Zoho Mail, WorkDrive, and Zoho Click, is the most popular product among Nigerian customers. “Zoho Workplace goes beyond being just a suite of tools, it’s an essential platform for businesses to stay connected and productive,” Ogundare noted.

Other popular products in Nigeria include Zoho One, which is described as the “operating system for your business,” allowing companies to manage various departments such as sales, human resources, and finance under one platform. Zoho CRM Plus, Zoho Books, and Zoho Desk are also widely used by Nigerian businesses, particularly in the IT, financial services, and real estate sectors.

Zoho’s growth in Nigeria is further reflected by its outstanding customer base, which includes top-tier companies like MTN and leading real estate firms. Ogundare noted the role of Zoho’s local roots in driving this success, stating, “We believe in being globally connected but locally rooted. This principle has helped us ensure trust and growth in communities like Nigeria.”

Zoho’s unique approach to business growth is also seen in its commitment to long-term employee development. More than 1,000 employees have been with the company for over a decade, and many have risen through the ranks. 

Ogundare proudly shared stories of employees who have transitioned from entry-level positions to senior roles, including a security guard who is now a developer and an IT specialist who became Zoho’s chief evangelist. “At Zoho, we invest in people. When you invest in people, they invest back into your business, helping it grow and succeed,” Ogundare said.

The innovator is driving inclusion through partnerships with She Code Africa, Heels and Tech, CodeTelligence, and many more, giving back to society and bolstering employment growth rates in the African continent. 

In 2020, Zoho’s CEO, Sridhar Vembu, introduced the concept of “transnational locality,” which emphasizes being locally rooted while leveraging global technology and culture.

This approach continues to drive Zoho’s success as it expands its footprint in local communities around the world, including Nigeria.

Businesses have had to adapt and find new ways of working to tackle these challenges. Nigeria is no exception.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of Nigeria, the annual inflation rate accelerated to 24.08% in July 2023, the highest since September 2005.

This has affected everything from electricity tariffs to transportation, all crucial to the performance of Nigerian enterprises.

Fortunately, by adopting the right technologies and using them the right way, enterprises can ensure that they’re in the best possible position to tackle these challenges head-on.

Technology does not only enable enterprises to cut costs, find efficiencies, and unlock higher productivity levels; it also allows them to engage with customers better and find new avenues for growth.

Hybrid work model backed by robust collaboration tools as a means to cut costs

Embracing remote and hybrid work models can exponentially decrease the costs associated with maintaining an office space. Think reduction in the costs of diesel or fuel, WiFi, office leases, facility management, and so on.

Collaboration and communication tools have also substantially evolved to support distributed workforces, helping enterprise teams stay connected from afar and sustain efficiency and productivity.

Video conferencing, project management, and various collaboration tools help ensure that team members can work together regardless of their physical location.

Remote and hybrid work can also make it easier to expand into new regions. There are, for example, companies in Nigeria that now work with team members in Kenya, South Africa, and other parts of the world with ease.

Embracing cloud-based storage

Another factor to consider is the ability to work and save more information to the cloud, eliminating the need for excess paperwork and large machinery that often leads to extensive hardware maintenance.

Moving paperwork like payroll processing, salary disbursement, customer records, and support inquiries to the cloud opens up further potential to analyse available data and automate repetitive tasks where necessary.

This can significantly reduce the manual labour of data entry for staff, thereby making them more efficient and productive.

The cost benefits that emerge from cloud-based storage and software are numerous, ranging from reduction in material (like paper) costs, cost savings from clearing up office space, and cost optimisation by proper resource utilisation towards important tasks rather than monotonous labour.

Understanding what the customer wants

Most businesses also deal with retail and distribution in one form or another. As such, there is a need for businesses to maximise their online presence to reach out to target audiences and have access to a wider customer base while reducing the costs and labour associated with physical marketing.

Data analytics and similar tech tools can help determine the level of attention that a campaign or product is getting and what type of audience demographic is engaging with it.

Analytical tools will further help track relevant information and lead to better decision-making as well as allocation of resources.

From customer relationship management to energy efficiency, and improved cybersecurity to financial management, cloud technology has played a huge role in establishing a better work environment, and it is definitely the way to go in today’s business world.

Cloud technology vendors have also adapted and modernised their offerings across multiple business areas to suit today’s landscape and help companies scale and improve efficiency.

Zoho, for instance, has over 55 products as part of its cloud portfolio, which caters to an array of business needs from sales, marketing, and business intelligence to employee collaboration, HR, and finance.

To implement these technologies successfully, Nigerian enterprises should additionally consider conducting a thorough cost-benefit analysis, investing in training employees, and ensuring that their IT infrastructure is secure and well-maintained.

These are equally crucial for achieving long-term competitiveness and cost optimisation through technology.

Kehinde Ogundare is the Country Manager, Zoho Nigeria.

Establishing and managing a business in Nigeria can be very challenging, especially when competing for customer attention and scarce resources. Delivering exceptional customer experience would be a strategic approach for businesses operating in Nigeria that want to stand out, take advantage of the opportunities, break even, and stay successful.

Businesses usually have a common goal of expansion. However, when the competitive business landscape is fierce, mere linear growth may no longer suffice. Instead, companies should strive for growth at scale to increase their revenue without a significant influx of additional resources.

One of the most crucial starting points for growth at scale is to focus on customer experience (CX). CX can be defined as the comprehensive range of a customer’s cognitive, emotional, sensory, and behavioural reactions throughout their entire journey with a company, spanning from pre-purchase to post-purchase stages. CX can either be a catalyst for success or the downfall of a company.

While it may appear as an exaggerated claim, it carries substantial weight when considering that according to one report, 81% of customers say that a positive customer experience significantly increases their likelihood of making repeat purchases.

Equally noteworthy is the fact that 61% of customers would readily switch companies following just one negative experience. These statistics emphasise the critical importance of cultivating and maintaining a superior customer experience.

Understanding the significance of CX is one thing, but delivering exceptional experiences is an entirely different matter. Bearing this in mind, how can organisations guarantee that they consistently deliver the utmost satisfaction to their customers? Although the answer may differ depending on the specific industry, there are several fundamental steps that any organisation can undertake to achieve this goal.

The power of contextual data  

One of the most impactful measures to undertake involves dismantling data silos. It’s critical to recognise that information fuels every department within an organisation. Ensuring access to contextual data empowers customer-facing teams to have impactful engagement with the customers, thereby improving the experience they can provide.

Furthermore, it enables the delivery of personalised experiences to each customer, further augmenting their perception of the organisation. In this regard, the implementation of a customer experience platform assumes significant importance.

Ideally, such a platform should offer seamless and contextual flow of data between different systems, single sign-on (SSO), and granular access control. At Zoho, we have dedicated efforts to incorporate these features into our customer experience platform— Zoho CRM Plus—that brings sales, marketing, support and other customer-facing teams together.

A single view of marketing  

The consolidation of customer data is vital for organisations, but it’s equally crucial to have a unified perspective on their marketing endeavours. It’s essential to recognise that the customer experience encompasses all interactions with an organisation, even those occurring before a purchase is made.

It’s also important to remember that marketing doesn’t just entail advertising. It also includes your branding, both online and offline, your social media presence, and your media and stakeholder relations.

So, it’s critical to deliver consistent experiences throughout all of your marketing activities. Achieving this goal requires that the whole marketing department has insight about each and every activity carried out by different teams.

This approach prevents the duplication of efforts, promotes transparency, and provides visibility to the managers who can use the insight to assess the impact of various activities.

Get the post-purchase service right  

After a customer makes a purchase, it’s essential to follow up with them in a non-intrusive manner to gauge their satisfaction with the product and the service they received. By collecting feedback, businesses can obtain valuable insights that can be used to further improve not just their engagement with a particular custome, but also their offerings.

Any company that is listening and acting on customer feedback will sooner or later outperform its competitors.   

Feedback on the customer experience serves as the foundation for further enhancing the post-purchase experience by enabling accurate recommendations of other relevant products from the inventory.

This iterative process ensures that the customer experience continues to evolve and improve, fostering long-term customer loyalty and driving repeat purchases. Even a simple survey tool can help a company gather valuable insights, which can then be used to improve overall CX efforts.

Building a foundation of excellence  

While numerous elements contribute to the creation of an exceptional customer experience, the foundational principles outlined above are undeniably crucial. With these fundamentals firmly in place, businesses can proactively cultivate an environment conducive to fostering long-lasting customer relationships and achieving sustainable growth.

Running a business in Nigeria can be an arduous task. Business owners face fierce competition as they strive to secure market share, acquire new customers, and enhance their productivity and profitability.

That business environment is getting more competitive. According to World Bank data, 97,988 new businesses were registered in Nigeria in 2020 (the last year for which numbers are available).

The country’s rapidly accelerating tech sector provides further evidence of that increased competitiveness. A report from McKinsey found that the number of startups in Nigeria and other African companies grew threefold between 2020 and 2021.

The growth of a business, whether it offers a product or service, is closely linked to its customer base. In order to remain competitive and retain these customers, it is crucial to use data-driven insights to inform business decisions and facilitate a successful customer experience.

Understanding data analytics

In the simplest terms, data analytics is about making sense of all the data that a business gathers, and using it to help the business improve its decision making or to gain insights into a particular subject or problem.

It enables entrepreneurs to make profitable decisions, drive innovation, anticipate market trends, and manage budgets. However, a report by KPMG that analyzed the usage of data and analytics in Nigeria’s business environment reveals that 56% of organizations in Nigeria base their decision making on intuition rather than data. This shows that businesses are yet to grasp the true potential that data can bring to decision making.

Another report highlights that, on an average, organizations plan to spend at least N50 million annually to develop data and analytics capabilities, indicating potential for businesses seeking to integrate these practices. However, just 16% of organizations have a defined role for their Chief Data Officer, and many merge data analytics responsibilities with the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), highlighting a talent gap.

Finding the right solution

A strong BI platform can gather data from across different software used by different departments such as sales, marketing, finance, and inventory to help the user make sense of the data through simple-to-understand charts, graphs, and other visual tools. This, in turn, facilitates strategic decision making.

Zoho, for example, provides a robust BI solution that comes with self-service data preparation and augmented analytics. It has strong AI/ML capabilities, enabling users to use natural language commands such as “show me our revenue growth last quarter” to get charts showing just that. Zoho Analytics can also be embedded in any third-party software so users do not have to log into a new app just to view reports.

In today’s world, where there is high competition for customer attention among businesses along with organizational operations driven by technology, data analytics enables a business to optimize performance, and make data-driven decisions.

Having real-time insights into how their business is performing and the current market trends can help business owners adapt to the fast-changing landscape and stay relevant.

Zoho Corporation, a leading global technology company, today announced execution plans and ongoing investment in AI, beginning with the launch of 13 generative AI Zoho application extensions and integrations, powered by ChatGPT.

Zoho’s developing AI strategy includes platform expansion and its innovation roadmap with a focus on delivering superior customer experience and value while ensuring the highest level of customer privacy and security.

Over a decade, Zoho has been executing and implementing AI (Zia) across its product portfolio, developing in-house technology that runs on the company’s private cloud.

“The fusion of ChatGPT’s generative AI with our homegrown AI features will provide users with a more intuitive, efficient, and secure experience, reflecting Zoho’s deep R&D-first culture,” said Kehinde Ogundare Country Manager, Zoho Nigeria.

“As a technology partner, Zoho’s customers continue to rely on us for keeping them ahead of the curve while retaining core tenets like privacy, which they have come to respect. We will continue to deliver on this promise without compromise”, added Ogundare.

The following are the three core tenets of Zoho’s AI strategy:

● Customer Experience: Zoho’s AI solutions deliver the context, intelligence, and efficiency necessary to produce exemplary experience. Zia is woven into the fabric of each step, be it enhancing customer records, producing documents, providing insights into processes or proactively forecasting, and preparing for user issues that might arise.

● Customer Privacy: Zoho builds its AI in-house, resulting in optimal privacy protection that effortlessly unifies with users’ greater technology ecosystems. Tools powered by Zoho’s AI extensions deliver intelligence without compromising customer data or sending information to an unverified third party.

● Customer Value: Zoho delivers multifaceted value in the form of customer productivity, ease of use, cost, relevant KPIs, and making AI widely available to a broad set of people.

AI Roadmap and Vision

In the short term, Zoho will facilitate Zia’s integration with third-party intelligence, bringing the newest technology into the company’s broad portfolio of business solutions.

As Zoho progresses, the company intends to take generative AI technology in-house, ensuring its 90 million global users benefit from intelligent experiences as well as Zoho’s leading value and privacy standards.

In addition, Zoho is currently developing proprietary Learning Language Models (LLMs) capable of conversing, summarising, paraphrasing, and adapting to new tasks with zero-shot learning techniques, empowering seamless AI-driven communication and knowledge discovery.

Generative AI in Zoho Applications

Available in its marketplace, Zoho’s new generative AI extensions, powered by ChatGPT, complement the broad portfolio of AI technology Zoho already supports.

This new technology has been contextually integrated into Zoho’s applications and can be leveraged right away by users: 

• Zoho CRM with Generative AI can extract important information from customer records, predict deal outcomes, create custom emails and templates, and check for grammatical errors.
• Zoho Analytics with Generative AI allows users to import public datasets, blend them with business data, and create SQL queries from natural language.
• Zoho Desk with Generative AI can summarise tickets, analyse customer tone, generate replies from a knowledge base, and track down solutions.
• Zoho Writer with Generative AI can suggest headlines, fix punctuation and shorten content, and integrate answers to user questions.
• Zoho Mail with Generative AI can create multiple versions of emails, highlight action items, and generate email summaries.
• Zoho Cliq with Generative AI can paraphrase messages, transform threads into outlines, and shorten responses.
• Zoho Social with Generative AI can produce engaging content, suggest relevant supporting media, and optimise posts.
• Zoho Assist with Generative AI can generate shareable summaries and enhance customer service.
• Zoho LandingPage with Generative AI can create complete product-specific landing pages with forms, personalisation, SEO optimisation, and migration capabilities.
• Zoho SalesIQ with Generative AI can transcribe conversations, tag transcripts, review messages, and utilise ChatGPT Block in Zobot.
• Zoho Notebook with Generative AI can organise notes with automatic tagging and summarising, turn them into checklists, and provide grammar and spelling suggestions with Zoho Blue Pencil.
• Zoho DataPrep with Generative AI can find external datasets and suggest relevant formulas.
• Zoho Meeting with Generative AI allows users to index session transcripts and generate effective keynotes.

Availability and Pricing  

Zia is available by default in Zoho’s applications, while ChatGPT-powered integrations are available in Zoho’s Marketplace.

Customers choosing to enable generative AI capabilities within Zoho’s applications may do so using their existing OpenAI account API key.

Based on the number of APIs used, customers will be billed directly by OpenAI. Zoho will maintain a steady rhythm announcing new generative AI extensions and integrations to its portfolio.