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Naspers’ international unit Prosus has launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that allows business to create their own programs and solutions. For the first time in the two decades that the group has operated as a primarily tech investor, the Naspers stable is now developing and offering its own AI platforms to the market.Prosus says the move renders traditional software development irrelevant while advancing its ambition to capitalise on the technology world’s biggest trend. The group also launched its own AI assistant to compete with the slew of agents currently on offer to businesses. On Tuesday the JSE’s largest technology group introduced ToqanClaw, a platform that lets “anyone create apps, dashboards and automations just by describing what they need”.The platform allows business owners to develop their own software solutions without the need for complex technical teams or third-party developers. Developed in-house by Prosus, ToqanClaw brings together its own Toqan platform with that of OpenClaw into a secure environment. OpenClaw is an open-source AI assistant created by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger that goes beyond standard chatbots.Naspers boss Fabricio Bloisi. (Supplied) The tool has surged in popularity since appearing on GitHub in November 2025, especially in China, where new technologies are often adopted faster than in many other countries.In a recent presentation, Naspers boss Fabricio Bloisi described the group’s shift from being an e-commerce giant to a “global-class AI company”. At its core, the shift has seen the group going from tech investor to e-commerce operator to AI platform. When Bloisi took the reins at the JSE’s largest tech player in mid-2024, he ushered in a new chapter that saw the group and Prosus moving away from a somewhat “passive” investor stance to becoming an operator of the various companies in its portfolio.The group said a number of its partners had already begun to see results from using ToqanClaw. “Everyone has a good AI model now. That’s not the advantage anymore. The question is who has the data, the context and the loops that make it actually useful for a real business,” said Bloisi. “We’ve spent 18 months building that inside Prosus; 60,000 agents, 10,000 applications. People who never wrote a line of code are building tools their teams use every day. Now we’re opening that to our partners, because this is the kind of AI that actually changes things and delivers real value for our partners.”The group has also launched an AI assistant called “Zapia,” with more than 6-million consumers already using it.“The future isn’t about opening 10 apps to plan your week, book a trip or compare a price. You’ll simply tell your assistant what you want, and it will get it done. Zapia is already doing this for millions of customers in Latin America and I’m excited that it’s now available everywhere for everyone.”Business Day
