One of the biggest benefits of joining ZBIN is access to premium chats where we bring a lot of experts from the forum for presentations and sometimes trainings. We generally prefer inhouse expertise and this helps our members to know each other well and network. Our first Premium Chat of the year focused on equipping our members on Artificial Intelligence overview and testing basic tools.

We bring you the initial presentation minus the question and answers and the trials by members.

………..

Ntate Victor: Good evening esteemed Zbinites,

And it’s my pleasure to present to you our first host of the year, Silas.

And he has an interesting topic of AI.

Over to you Silas

Silas: Wonderful

I’m grateful there’s someone. So I decided to put this presentation in writing so that our fellow friends that could be busy at the moment won’t miss out.

Silas: Before I go any further. Let me start by introducing myself

My name Silas Takunda Chidlamakonho. I’m a certified drone pilot who have worked with different schools around the nation to educate students on drones, robotics, artificial intelligence and internet of things. I’m also a student currently studying aircraft engineering and I’m passionate about farming; Mmmm seems like a recipe for disaster right

Anyways today I’m excited to share on how AI can transform business operations and decision-making in today’s world and explore how we can leverage technology to drive growth and innovation, but before that we have to understand what is AI.

Silas: So what is AI or Artificial Intelligence?

AI, or Artificial Intelligence , is the field of creating computer systems that can perform tasks that normally require human intelligence.

In simple terms: AI is the making of machines that can think, learn, and make decisions as people do.

 Many people have bracketed AI into robots and self driving vehicles only but that’s not it, AI is a broad term.

Moving forward

Let’s just get a brief background of AI .

Artificial Intelligence began in the 1950s when scientists started exploring whether machines could simulate human intelligence. In 1956, the term *Artificial Intelligence* was officially coined by John McCarthy at the Dartmouth Conference, which is considered the birth of AI as a field.

During the 1960s–1970s, early AI focused on rule-based systems and symbolic reasoning, producing programs that could solve math problems or play simple games. Progress slowed in the 1970s–1980s due to limited computing power and unrealistic expectations, leading to periods known as AI winters.

In the 1990s–2000s, AI revived with better hardware, more data, and improved algorithms. Notable successes included IBM’s Deep Blue defeating chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997.

From the 2010s onward, AI advanced rapidly due to machine learning, deep learning, and big data. Breakthroughs in image recognition, speech processing, and natural language understanding led to modern AI systems used in healthcare, finance, transportation, and everyday digital services.

Don’t worry much if you are not getting the jargon; stand still, all will be well after the presentation.

What can AI Achieve?

Now that he have a brief background of AI “Artificial Intelligence, let’s see what it can do.*

AI can:

1.Learn from data: recognize patterns and improve over time. For example Netflix, YouTube recommendations, haaaa does it ring a bell?

2. Understand language: speech recognition, translation, chat bots. Examples: Siri on iPhones etc.

3. See and interpret images: face recognition, medical scans.

4. Make decisions: recommendations, fraud detection, game playing. Examples: computer game players, grammar correctors etc.

5. Automate tasks: virtual assistants, robots, self-driving features.

 Now this AI is categorised into 3 categories.

1. Narrow AI

2. General AI

3. Super intelligent AI

 Of course due to diversity of knowledge, there could be more out there but today let’s focus on these 3.

Let’s start with *Narrow AI

This is the most common type of AI known by many and it’s designed for single specific tasks.

For example Chat bots, voice assistants, facial recognition and recommendation systems.

And this is where we feed on

 Let’s move forward, *General AI

Can perform any intellectual task a human can, it can reason, learn and adapt across domains. In this category that’s where we have the most humanoid robots like Diella, Albania first robot prime minister.

We are not going to talk of third category in this presentation because it’s deep stuff for giants.

Now, so most of us as public we operate on the first category “NARROW AI” and we want to see how we can equip ourselves on this, to rocket the growth of our businesses.

So I realised many of us we only know chatgbt as AI but there are many that can be used for different tasks and they can only perform best if they are used correctly.

For us to better understand and consumption of my package here. I have classified again type of NARROW AI and here are they.

1. Now let’s talk of these in their classes.

1. Writing & Content Creation

These help with drafting text, brainstorming ideas, creating marketing copy, and more:

ChatGPT (Free Tier) – Generate emails, proposals, product descriptions, and brainstorm business ideas.

Copy.ai – AI-assisted marketing copy, captions, blog intros, and sales text.

Grammarly – Checks grammar, improves tone, and enhances clarity in all business writing.

And the subscription costs for those that needs payments is mainly nothing compared to the reward they give.

 So now there’s a problem associated with these. We have to understand that these are machines, they need a clear description of what you really want for them to give the best result.

Are we still together

2. Design & Visual Content*

Tools to create or edit images, graphics, and visuals:

Did you know that a clear description of all those flyer, business cards and many more, these days designers use AI to create them?

A clear definition of a flyer, business card or a poster you want on canva can suprise your eyes with what will see.

So on this we have:

Canva AI – AI design assistant for social posts, flyers, presentations, and basic AI image generation.

Photoroom – Remove backgrounds and create professional product photos for e-commerce.

OpusClip / Pictory *AI* – Turn long videos into short clips suitable for social media.

They are available also for free, but for a better experience a subscribed member like you will get the best experience .

*4. Marketing & Social Media*

AI tools that help grow your audience and improve outreach:

Mailchimp AI (Free Plan) Create and optimize email campaigns with *AI* suggestions.

Wix ADI – Build a business website quickly using *AI* (design + content).

*Canva Magic Studio* – Smart templates and content resizing for multi-platform visuals.

**5.Customer Support & Automation*

*Add intelligent automation to your support channels* :

*Tidio AI Chatbot* (Free Tier) – AI chatbot for FAQs, bookings, and customer engagement.

*Durable AI Website Builder* – Quickly generate a website, including forms and contact automation (popular free option for business sites).

So there’s another one I left out for a reason

It’s called SUNO.

SUNO creates original, full songs with vocals and instrumentals from simple text prompts, allowing anyone to generate music by describing a genre, mood, or theme, or by providing their own lyrics, making music production accessible and fast for users of all skill levels.

In short we are saying.

Justa simple can text can be made into a song and today we are going to make one here maybe for this presentation describing how each and every one who was following felt about it

So for now because of our time I will open this time for questions.

One of the best entrepreneurial shows in Zimbabwe is our Premium Chat Show which we host every Friday evening. We invite our members to share their experiences, and sometimes we even reach out to experts for presentations. Premium Chat shows are part of subscription benefits which is $10 per year.

We share below a premium chat done in 2023-therefore a bit outdated, but the content still valuable for your decision making. The premium chat was hosted by our member Tinashe Chingoma.

Today we are going to dwell much on tuckshops.

Recently the CEO of OK Zimbabwe arguably the biggest retailer in the FMCG market complained that they are likely to get out of business due to the influx of tuckshops. When we talk about tuckshops we merely refer to small convenient shops which has sprouted around all towns and cities.

Way back especially 90s they served as convenient shops but of late they have be one the hub of retail and family needs have been able to be met at the same level as OK,TM etc

The major thrust today will be

1-financing

2-marketing

3-product pricing

4-procurement

5-business tactic/season approach

5-growth/survival phases

6-wealth creation

Financing

This is one of the crucial parts in this business. Hakuna Mari Shoma and I repeat hakuna Mari Shoma kuti utange yako tuckshop.

The major thrust is what your customers want. Identify customer needs

• Those needs will determine what you have to put in your shop
• Let’s say hauna Mari une kana $1000 only kana $500
• Look at you location
• Consider what you want on a daily basis
• I am referring to basic needs like bread, milk, rice, mealie meal ,eggs etc
• Those are the things you stock first

If you stay in a high density suburb you have to incorporate maputi,mazepe,sweets etc.The good thing about those products is you are able to put mark ups of a minimum of 10%

If you stay in Harare you are blessed, generally Harare inodhura

Chitungwiza has tough competition. So if you have like $500 unotanga

Target to sell $100 per day

Every cent every revenue ngaidzokere inohodha

You get something like $10-$15 profit per day

Meaning kuti you have a chance of creating excess of $400 profit per month kana watanga nestock ye$500

Please when your capital is so low concentrate on fast moving products

Put all your effort on those products which fly off the shelf

Don’t over stock things like rice,sugar,cooking oil etc

Zvobata Mari apa mamark up azvo are as low as 5%

Right let’s look at those whose have like anything beyond $2-3000

Walk around your area and do a smart survey

Ona kuti vamwe vanei?

Ona zvaunotengawo on a daily basis.

Ona zvaunotsvaga uchishaya.

Put all that together because we will be going to our second part which is the crucial one.

Procurement

Always strive to procure from the manufacturer

Of the manufacturer insists on accounts opening find out the requirements

Kana usingagoni wega Batana nevamwe

Usually indians put minimum orders per item

Please zvegodo chimbosiyai,batanidzai

5% difference in prices iyoyo yakakosha

Manufactures we are talking about

• Delta
• Varun
• Trade kings
• Mega market
• Surface
• Pure oils etc

You also need agents like

• Gain
• Evolutions etc

These companies will be relatively cheaper than wholesalers

If you have access to rtgs at good rates it’s also Ana advantage

Let me give you an example

TM is selling cooking oil at $19900 today…pure drop

A box of pure drop is going for $23.50 in the market,surface is selling at $23 but minimum truck re700 boxes

So if you get let’s say rate re7300 your box maTM rinenge raita $21.80

Wotengesa hako mafuta Ako ne$3

Those basic maths ndodzinoyambutsa manje

Foreign procurement

Major sources dzezvinhu zviri muzim

• South Africa
• Zambia
• Mozambique
• Malawi
• South africa-bulk of the products in Zim comes from SA.Even sugar is now being imported from SA.

Zambia-few but high return products

• Milkit
• Sweets
• Kombucha
• Joe biscuits
• Shake n sip
• Wildcat etc

 Malawi

• Pads
• Mosquito coil
• Mosquito repelant
• Doom
• Shoe polish
• Hair products like dark n lovely

Mozambique

Almost similar to product from Malawi but they have rice and rice product as extra

*Modes of procurement*

Direct procurement

You decide to buy directly from SA etc

requires hands on

If you are still small you would need to travel to say go to shops like cutlrice ,SA shop etc

So Tuckshops rite those in downtown wats their capital outlay out of interest

You wrap your goods give them to malaicha and come to zim

To survive in downtown you require a minimum of 60k

Option 2 in direct procurement is you rely on marunner

Mambuya anoenda vohodha iwe wohodha kw ari

You can choose to specialise then you would require less capital

T Gomendo: These ones who independently supply tuckshop

If you have access to good rates then you swipe on wholesale markets like Gain,Metro etc

Of late there is a ZIMRA list which clearly define goods allowable for duty waiver

Tuckshops market themselves through pricing and availability of goods

Your pricing should be competitive

Some tuckshops are resorting to specialisation

Eg we are in a very hot season you can choose to specialise on liquids

Drinks

Yogurts etc

Revive

Pepsi products are a hit

You open an account with Varun ,Dairyboad and Probrands

You get on average 3-5% discount

You turn that discount into your mark up and do wholesale

Let’s say you are able to make $2000 sales per day *30

That’s 60k sales

That’s translate to approximately $3000 gross profit

I know of a guy near bakers inn who pushes 5-10k cases of cascade 1litre per week

He puts 30 cents margin

Those guys in downtown put 50cents to a $1 mark up per box

You have to have in mind that all businesses go through dry seasons

When you face your own dry season you ought to have the survival tactic

Major point will be cost cutting measures

Lifestyle management

Salary reductions

Mass sale approach/bulk approach

Procurement redirections

All those who are outside Harare you have a chance to grow bigger as you are able to put up higher margins.