Onome Amuge
Global technology firm Zoho Corporation has introduced new agentic AI capabilities across its suite of business applications and made them available at no additional cost, in a move that could redefine how small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) across Africa adopt artificial intelligence.
The company’s announcement marks an escalation in the global race to make AI tools more accessible to everyday businesses. But unlike its rivals, Zoho’s approach hinges on AI as a utility, not a luxury.
While industry giants like Microsoft and Salesforce are building AI into their platforms through premium subscriptions and usage-based pricing, Zoho is betting on inclusion. Its latest upgrade integrates advanced AI assistants across three key business areas comprising collaboration, customer experience, and human resources for free, within its existing software ecosystem.
“Businesses are increasingly eager to leverage AI but often face obstacles such as high implementation costs, data readiness challenges, and fragmented systems. Zoho’s unified, homegrown technology stack eliminates these barriers by allowing advanced AI features to be deployed automatically and at no extra cost. Our customers don’t need to invest in third-party integrations or additional tools—the technology simply arrives and works. This approach makes AI adoption practical, affordable, and impactful for businesses across the continent,” said Kehinde Ogundare, Country Head, Zoho Nigeria.
For many African businesses, particularly SMEs, the costs associated with AI adoption have remained prohibitive. The expense of third-party integrations, coupled with data privacy concerns and the need for technical expertise, has made AI a distant goal rather than an immediate opportunity.
Zoho’s new agentic AI model aims to change that by embedding intelligence natively into tools businesses already use from email and spreadsheets to recruitment platforms and customer service software.
In Zoho Workplace, its collaboration suite, the new Ask Zia assistant can now perform multi-step actions spanning multiple applications. For example, an employee could instruct Zia to analyze feedback from customer emails, summarize insights in a spreadsheet, and notify a project team; all with a single command.
Other tools like Zoho Tables now feature AI Base Creation, allowing users to generate complete database structures from short prompts. It’s automation without complication, designed for users without coding experience.
On the customer-facing side, Zoho Desk, used by over 100,000 businesses globally, gains a new “Resolution Expert”, a Zia Agent that studies how support tickets are resolved to improve future customer interactions. In a similar vein, Zoho Sign, the company’s secure digital signature platform, now integrates Agreement Intelligence, enabling users to draft, review, and query contracts through Zia without switching platforms.
The human resources suite has also seen notable innovation. Zoho Recruit introduces AI-powered candidate and job matching, analysing CVs and job descriptions to identify the best fits automatically. A new AI-Assisted Assessment Generator creates customized tests for each role, cutting down on administrative time while improving fairness and efficiency in hiring.
These features form part of Zoho’s broader agentic AI ecosystem, which includes Zia Agents, Zia Agent Studio, and an Agent Marketplace. Together, they allow businesses to automate cross-functional tasks from generating contracts to scheduling meetings with minimal human intervention.
Beyond its technology, Zoho’s AI philosophy sets it apart in an industry often criticised for data exploitation and opaque algorithms.
Unlike many AI providers that rely on consumer data for model training, Zoho has built its systems on a privacy-first framework. Its proprietary Zia LLM (Large Language Model) and Zia Hubs, which organize unstructured company data, are designed to deliver insights without exposing sensitive information.
Zoho emphasised that its AI models are not trained on consumer data, and they don’t retain customer information. The company noted further that its goal is to deliver practical tools that enhance productivity without inflating costs or compromising trust.
This emphasis on responsible AI resonates strongly in markets like Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa, where data privacy laws are tightening and digital transformation is accelerating.
