intella, the deep-tech leader in Arabic-first speech intelligence, and Visa, a world leader in payments technology, have joined forces in a dynamic, collaboration-driven initiative to revolutionize conversational AI for financial institutions across the Middle East and North Africa. This strategic partnership goes beyond conventional models, to co-developing innovative solutions that reflect the complexity and richness of the region’s linguistic landscape—supporting over 25 distinct Arabic dialects.
The partnership directly addresses a critical "Intelligence Gap" that generic AI solutions cannot solve. This gap stems from two fundamental challenges in the region: the inability to accurately comprehend the rich complexities of Arabic dialects, and the standard operational practice of manually analyzing only a random sample of customer calls. intella’s technology is uniquely engineered to overcome both hurdles. Built from the ground up for the Arab world, it provides complete visibility by analyzing every single customer interaction with unparalleled dialectal accuracy. This transforms previously untapped conversational data into actionable intelligence, allowing Visa’s partner banks to evolve their operations from reactive customer service to proactive, data-driven intelligence.
"This is a pivotal moment. Visa’s partnership with intella validates our foundational belief: that true understanding of the Arab world cannot be an afterthought, it must be the core of the technology," said Nour Taher, Co-Founder and CEO of intella. "We are not just providing a tool; we are unlocking the real voice of the customer for the entire regional banking ecosystem. This collaboration will empower financial leaders to make strategic decisions with unprecedented clarity, driving growth and innovation based on every customer conversation."
The partnership will provide Visa’s network with access to intella’s full product ecosystem, beginning with intellaCX, which turns unstructured call data into strategic assets for compliance, agent performance, and product development. The collaboration will also pave the way for the adoption of Ziila, intella’s advanced AI agent, to create next-generation, seamless customer experiences.
“We are thrilled to embark on this collaborative journey with intella, leveraging the expertise of Visa Consulting & Analytics to co-develop and enrich conversational AI solutions tailored specifically to address the aspirations of our partners across the MENA region,” said Basma Berti, VP for Visa Consulting & Analytics. “Visa Implementation Services will lead the delivery and implementation of these solutions across the region to enable this partnership to go far beyond a simple technology integration—it is a shared commitment to expanding the capabilities of Arabic conversational AI, covering 25 dialects across the Middle East and North Africa. Together, we are shaping a powerful unified solution that will empower financial institutions to deliver truly localized and innovative customer experiences at scale, supporting growth and transformation throughout the region."
This initiative aligns with intella's recent $12.5M Series A funding to advance Arabic AI models and expand in MENA, including Ziila's debut with Jumia for voice-based ordering. The collaboration positions Visa's partners to leverage localized AI for enhanced compliance, efficiency, and customer satisfaction in a region with over 7,500 enterprises and Arabic as the fifth most spoken language globally.
intella is the leading Arabic speech intelligence company, specializing in building Arabic-first AI models to cater to the nuanced needs of enterprise contact centers in the MENA region. The company’s suite of models, including its dialectal ASR engine and the conversational AI agent, Ziila, provides the foundational technology for enterprises to analyze their customer conversations and build next-generation customer experiences. This enables businesses to unlock data-driven insights to improve customer satisfaction, ensure quality control, and increase operational efficiency. For more information, please visit intella.me.
Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.
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