NICE (NICE) Expands AI Customer Experience Platform in South Africa Amid Ongoing Analyst Caution

NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE) is one of the best affordable AI stocks to buy now. On December 10, NICE (NASDAQ:NICE) unveiled its CXone Mpower platform on a locally hosted cloud in South Africa, backed by redundant data centers in both Cape Town and Johannesburg. While the stock has declined roughly 35% over the past six months, the company continues to show financial strength, holding more cash than debt and maintaining a gross margin of about 67% as it expands its global footprint.

NICE (NICE) Expands AI Customer Experience Platform in South Africa Amid Ongoing Analyst Caution A data scientist sitting in front of a monitor to review the performance of AI-driven digital business solutions.

By hosting the platform entirely within South Africa, NICE ensures that applications and customer data remain in-country, meeting local regulatory requirements. The company has also invested in regional telecom infrastructure so voice traffic stays local, helping to lower latency and improve call quality. The rollout is aimed at banks, other highly regulated industries, and large organizations upgrading their customer engagement systems.

CXone Mpower combines NICE’s agentic AI capabilities, strengthened through its acquisition of Cognigy, to support both automated and live-agent interactions. The platform is designed to manage customer journeys across multiple channels while integrating workforce management tools, positioning South Africa as a growing center for AI-powered customer service.

According to NICE, the launch is part of a broader expansion across Africa, with additional deployments already in progress in several countries. The company plans to work closely with local partners through briefings and workshops. Earlier in the week, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives downgraded the stock to Hold and set a $120 price target.

NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE) provides AI-driven cloud solutions that support customer engagement and financial crime prevention across global markets. Its product portfolio includes CXone Mpower for automating and enhancing customer service, Evidencentral for managing digital evidence, X-Sight for advanced AI applications, and Xceed for anti–money laundering and fraud detection. In addition, the company offers data intelligence tools designed to help organizations identify, monitor, and reduce financial crime risks.

While we acknowledge the potential of NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than NICE and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.