Technology
Zoho Introduces Free Agentic AI Tools for Businesses
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
To help businesses boost their productivity, automate routine tasks, and focus on higher-value work, the global technology company, Zoho, has launched new agentic AI features across three key product categories—collaboration, customer experience, and human resources. For professionals looking to stay ahead of these shifts, Coursiv offers AI-focused micro-lessons and accredited courses that build the hands-on fluency needed to work confidently alongside agentic tools.
The new agentic features build on Zoho’s existing AI ecosystem, which already includes Zia Agents, Zia Agent Studio, and Agent Marketplace.
These intelligent tools allow users to perform complex, cross-functional actions such as creating contracts from multiple files, checking team availability before scheduling meetings, or automatically converting sales queries from Zoho Mail into CRM leads without manual effort.
Within Zoho Workplace, the company’s collaboration suite, AI upgrades have been introduced across Mail, Cliq, Sheet, and Tables. The enhanced Ask Zia assistant can now process multi-step commands spanning multiple applications, while Zoho Tables introduces AI Base Creation to help users instantly generate complete data structures from a short prompt. Additional AI-powered features such as Keyword Extraction, Sentiment Analysis, and Language Detection simplify data management and analysis.
In the customer experience category, Zoho Desk, used by over 100,000 businesses globally, now includes pre-built Zia Agents like the Resolution Expert, which records and learns from support ticket resolutions to improve future service. Meanwhile, Zoho Sign, a secure digital signature platform, now offers Agreement Intelligence, enabling users to draft and query contracts using Ask Zia without relying on third-party tools.
In human resources, Zoho Recruit introduces new agentic AI features that improve candidate matching and assessment creation. Zia’s Candidate and Job Match features analyse CVs and job descriptions to ensure better hiring outcomes, while AI-Assisted Assessment Generation automatically creates complete tests tailored to each role—saving time and ensuring fair, efficient evaluations.
“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,” the Country Head for Zoho Nigeria, Mr Kehinde Ogundare, commented.
Business Post learned that the new features are available immediately at no additional cost across Zoho’s suite of business applications.
The introduction of these features builds on Zoho’s broader AI strategy, which includes Zia Hubs, a system that enables AI access to unstructured company data, and Zia LLM, Zoho’s proprietary large language model developed specifically for business use.
Alongside Zia, Zoho’s long-standing AI assistant, these innovations form the foundation of the company’s agentic AI approach—helping businesses gain deeper insights and efficiency from their data across Zoho’s platform of more than 55 integrated applications.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr Aminu Maida, has reemphasised the need to protect the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure, especially fibre networks, noting that damage to fibre networks carries significant economic consequences.
Speaking virtually at the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) Critical Conversation Forum on Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) in Lagos recently, he described FTTH as a critical enabler of Nigeria’s digital future.
“FTTH is uniquely positioned to meet Nigerians' next phase of data demand. The quality of our broadband will increasingly shape the competitiveness of our businesses, the growth of our digital industry and the opportunities available to our citizens,” the NCC chief stated.
“We must uphold deployment standards. Nigeria needs fibre that is properly installed, properly documented, and properly protected,” Mr Maida further said at the event themed Fibre to the Home in Nigeria: Addressing Challenges, Strengthening Standards and Ensuring Sustainable Deployment.
During a panel discussion titled Policy, Governance and Regulatory Alignment, the Deputy Director of Strategic Business Initiatives at ipNX, Mr Segun Okuneye, highlighted the need for stronger collaboration across the telecommunications ecosystem to unlock the full potential of fibre broadband in Nigeria.
According to him, sustainable fibre deployment extends beyond technology and investment to include policy consistency, stakeholder alignment, infrastructure protection, and shared responsibility.
“Achieving universal fibre connectivity requires more than deploying infrastructure; it requires sustained collaboration between operators, regulators, government agencies and host communities.
“When policies are aligned, deployment standards are consistently enforced, and critical infrastructure is protected, we create an environment where investment thrives and more Nigerians can enjoy reliable, high-speed broadband.
“At ipNX, we remain committed to working with all stakeholders to build resilient digital infrastructure that will support Nigeria’s economic growth for generations to come.”
Earlier in his welcome address, ATCON President, Mr Tony Emoekpere, underscored the strategic importance of FTTH in achieving the country’s broadband penetration targets while calling for greater public awareness around protecting communications infrastructure.
“This forum is critical because Fibre-to-the-Home is the technology that will enable the country to achieve full broadband penetration. We all depend on communication infrastructure, and it must be protected,” he declared.
Drawing a comparison with power infrastructure in the country, he added, “If somebody comes to your neighbourhood to tamper with your transformer or power cables, everybody will come out. The same thing needs to apply for communications infrastructure. When we see people damaging fibre cables, we should raise an alarm.”
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Thursday, July 23, 2026, provided an opportunity for financial services professionals to converge on Landmark Event Centre, Lagos, to brainstorm on ways to meet the rising customers’ expectations.
The platform used for this purpose was Core by Interswitch. It is part of the company’s broader commitment to strengthening Africa’s digital payments ecosystem by fostering collaboration, knowledge sharing and operational excellence across the financial services value chain.
At the event, participants, numbering over 400, also highlighted the growing importance of operational excellence in sustaining resilient payment infrastructure.
As digital financial services continue to expand across Africa, closer collaboration among financial institutions, fintechs and payment service providers will be essential to improving responsiveness, resolving operational challenges more effectively and delivering consistently reliable customer experiences.
The Executive Vice President for Operations and Technology at Interswitch, Mr Babafemi Ogungbamila, said the forum reflects the company’s belief that exceptional customer experiences are built not only on innovative technology but also on the expertise, collaboration and commitment of the professionals who keep payment systems running every day.
“Every successful digital transaction is powered by professionals whose work often goes unseen but is fundamental to building trust in digital payments. Core by Interswitch was created to recognise their contribution, strengthen collaboration across the industry and create opportunities for shared learning that ultimately benefit financial institutions and the customers they serve.
“As digital payments continue to evolve, investing in the people and processes that power the technology is just as important as investing in the technology itself,” Mr Ogungbamila said.
Beyond recognising the professionals whose work often goes unnoticed, the programme underscored the value of creating stronger connections across the payments ecosystem.
By creating a dedicated platform for knowledge sharing, collaboration and professional development, Core by Interswitch aims to build a more connected community of payments operations professionals equipped to respond to the evolving demands of the digital economy.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
WhatsApp has been updated with a web calling feature, allowing users to now make and receive audio and video calls, both one-on-one and group, directly from WhatsApp Web.
A notice from the Meta-owned messaging platform disclosed that this feature works without the need to download any app.
It was disclosed that this update was made to WhatsApp to make it easier for users to make calls wherever they are and on whatever device, phone or laptop.
Users will have access to features available on their other devices, including screen sharing, reactions, and a dedicated Calls tab with full call history and favourites, all from their browsers.
WhatsApp noted that calls from this feature are end-to-end encrypted, with no time limits and at no cost, as it is the same private experience they expect from the platform.
WhatsApp has also been embedded with easy call transfer, enabling the movement of an active group call from one device to another without hanging up. Users can seamlessly transfer calls to WhatsApp Web or Desktop when they arrive home to collaborate on a larger screen – or vice versa.
The platform further said it now has QuickHD, which allows for an improved video experience at the beginning of a call. With QuickHD, users can now enjoy high-definition video immediately in the very first few seconds of the call.
In addition, it has launched noise suppression to remove the background noise around callers so their voices come through clearly to the person on the other end, even in loud or busy environments. This can be managed at any time in in-call settings.
WhatsApp said these features are rolling out gradually and will be available to everyone soon, expressing its desire to make WhatsApp calling simpler to use.
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