Econet Ai, the artificial intelligence arm of Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, has launched a nationwide campaign to get ordinary Zimbabweans using AI in their daily lives, taking its message to schools, small businesses and social gatherings.

The campaign, reported on Tuesday by The Herald, CITE and ZiFM Stereo, marks a shift from Econet using AI inside its own operations to selling it to the public. The company says it will borrow the playbook it used to make EcoCash a household name.

"We want everyone who has a smartphone to start using AI, and that is nearly 70% of our base. Unfortunately, you can't access AI without a proper smartphone," Econet Ai chief executive Navdeep Kapur said.

One platform, 100 models

At the centre of the push is CAIMEX, a platform Econet says gives users access to 100 AI models and lets them pick the cheapest one for a given task. Econet describes it as the first of its kind in Africa.

Users buy AI tokens to power their questions and tasks. Econet's examples range from students getting help with their studies to pastors finding a Bible verse in seconds.

Earlier this month the Zimbabwean tech site STACKWIRE reported that Econet's EcoAI Tokens service puts ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Mistral on a single web platform, paid for with airtime or EcoCash. It said eligible new prepaid customers can get 3,000 free tokens a day for 90 days, and that the trial may roll onto a paid daily plan unless the customer cancels. STACKWIRE also noted that Econet's terms warn users not to submit confidential or personal information.

"Zimbabweans should be very proud"

Econet Group chief executive Dr Douglas Mboweni said Zimbabwe already has what the company believes is the highest level of daily AI use in Africa, through products such as the Yamurai helpline, EcoChat and EcoFarmer.

"I don't know of an African country that has reached our level of AI interaction and adoption; Zimbabweans should be very proud," he said. Econet did not publish figures to back the comparison.

Econet says its goal is to make Zimbabwe the most AI-savvy country on the continent. Yamurai now answers questions in English, Shona and Ndebele, and the company says more local languages will follow.

Cassava signs up to resell Claude

The campaign came on the same day that Cassava Technologies, a sister group in the businesses built by Zimbabwean entrepreneur Strive Masiyiwa, said it had become an authorised reseller of Anthropic's Claude AI models through Amazon Bedrock, Amazon's cloud AI service.

In a statement distributed through PR Newswire and carried by TechAfrica News, Cassava said the deal gives businesses across Africa a local partner through which to buy and build on Claude. "Our goal is simple, advanced AI within reach of every business, government, researcher, entrepreneur and university across the emerging markets globally," said Hardy Pemhiwa, Cassava's president and group chief executive.

Why it matters

Paying for AI tools has been a hurdle for many Zimbabweans. Most international AI subscriptions need a foreign card, and STACKWIRE pointed out that a US$20 monthly plan is a big upfront cost. Selling AI through airtime and mobile money removes that barrier, and if it works it could become a model for other African mobile networks.

The cost question has not gone away, though. STACKWIRE cited an early Techzim test in which a 5,000-token daily bundle ran out after two model-comparison messages, so how far a paid package actually goes will decide whether this campaign reaches beyond early adopters.

Sources: The Herald, 27 Oct 2026: https://www.heraldonline.co.zw/econet-steps-up-campaign-for-mass-ai-adoption/ · CITE (Staff Reporter), 27 Oct 2026: https://cite.org.zw/econet-steps-up-campaign-for-mass-ai-adoption/ · ZiFM Stereo (Staff Writer), 27 Oct 2026: https://zifmstereo.co.zw/econet-launches-campaign-for-mass-ai-adoption/ · STACKWIRE (Fortune Nowake), 13 Oct 2026: https://stackwire.co.zw/articles/econet-ecoai-tokens-airtime-chatgpt-claude-gemini · Cassava Technologies release via PR Newswire, 27 Oct 2026: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cassava-technologies-becomes-an-authorised-reseller-of-claude-on-amazon-bedrock-302920658.html · TechAfrica News, 27 Oct 2026: https://techafricanews.com/2026/10/27/cassava-technologies-claude-ai-reseller-africa/

Related: Mavetera tells Potraz to judge itself on broadband, not licences