GovChat to be showcased at Las Vegas tech summit

They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, and so it should be – except when GovChat, an innovative citizen engagement platform, gets invited to a tech summit in the world-renowned resort city.

GovChat, owned by the South African government, is on the line-up of the Amazon re:Mars summit scheduled to kick off in Las Vegas, Nevada next Tuesday, 21 June.

Amazon re:Mars is a global event for machine learning, automation, robotics, and space. Organisers say the tech showcase includes never-before-seen AI exhibits and demonstrations.

Earlier this year, GovChat ruffled the feathers of WhatsApp owner Meta (formerly known as Facebook) when it threatened to remove it from its business application. Meta claims that GovChat has preferred to prioritise its own commercial interests over those of the public.

GovChat chief executive Eldrid Jordaan says at its peak, GovChat handles 12 000 messages per minute. Since 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the platform has grown to 9.2 million active users.

It has also processed well over 15 million social relief of distress grant applications on behalf of the South African government, and enabled citizens to access their Covid-19 test results from both public, and private healthcare facilities securely over their devices.

GovChat to announce SaaS offering

“In South Africa, we have seen how providing access to advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning is vital to stopping the spread of Covid-19 and helping individuals quickly find medical help when they fall ill,” remarks Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president for Amazon machine learning at Amazon Web Services (AWS).

“GovChat, South Africa’s largest citizen engagement platform, launched a Covid-19 chatbot in less than two weeks using Amazon Lex, an AI service for building conversational interfaces into any application using voice and text.”

At Amazon re:Mars, GovChat will announce that it has readied its technology as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering. This enables any government in the world to procure the technology through the AWS Partner Network, and the AWS Market Place.

Jordaan says, “Through the partnership with AWS enables our technology to be deployed and scaled across multiple government partners and clients wherein AWS offers its services.”

He adds that the GovChat platform is being showcased at Amazon re:Mars as an example of impact-driven technology. GovChat is one of the largest users of AWS Lex technology, the AI service with advanced natural language models to deploy conversational interfaces.

ALSO READ: WiBox founders turn SA power cuts into start-up success