Airtel Kenya on Wednesday launched an artificial intelligence (AI)- powered Spam Alert Service to enhance mobile security for its customers.
The service, which will be available to all its subscribers at no cost, allows users to easily identify and report suspicious or unwanted messages, helping combat the growing threat of SMS fraud and spam.
By leveraging AI, Airtel Kenya says it seeks to improve user protection and create a safer communication environment for its subscribers.
The service will be available for both Airtel smartphone and feature phone customers and requires no additional application downloads.
Speaking at the launch, Airtel Kenya Managing Director, Ashish Malhotra, said, “At Airtel, we are committed to providing innovative solutions that enhance our customer experience. The AI spam alert service is the first of its kind in the Kenyan market, and it fosters our dedication towards groundbreaking solutions aimed at a better customer experience.”
”With the new AI-powered spam alert, we are enabling our customers to be more vigilant to fraud attempts on their phones and to have a better experience of our services.”
The service classifies suspicious SMS messages as “Suspected SPAM.” Without reading specific SMS messages, the AI analyses in real time over 250 parameters, including the sender’s usage patterns such as SMS frequency and geographical spread of targets.
Airtel Kenya says the AI Spam Alert Service is designed to filter all SMS through a proprietary dual-layer protection: one layer at the network level and the other at the IT systems level, processing over 18 million messages, each in 2 milliseconds.
Additionally, the software alerts customers of malicious weblinks received via SMS. For this purpose, a centralized database of blacklisted URLs is maintained, and by scanning every SMS in real time the AI system can warn users against accidentally clicking on suspicious links.
Subscribers of the Airtel SIM services will access the service as a value-added feature of their subscription at no extra cost.
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