The newspaper that took Africa online in 1994 is first again: Legate Ads™ — ads that readers can talk to.
Agentic Tech today announced that the Mail & Guardian has become the first news publisher in Africa to offer conversational AI on its own ad inventory, adopting Legate Ads™ — AI agents served inside display-ad creatives that can converse with readers, answer real questions, and turn interest into qualified leads.
Unlike a static banner, a Legate Ads™ agent can respond in conversation. A reader taps the ad unit and can ask the advertiser real questions and receive answers drawn exclusively from a catalog of facts the advertiser has approved. For advertisers, campaigns produce transcript-backed qualified leads instead of clicks. For the Mail & Guardian, the format creates a new premium-tier revenue stream — trafficked through its standard Google Ad Manager workflow.
"Looks good — let's do it," said Hoosain Karjieker, CEO of the Mail & Guardian, after seeing a live demonstration of the product. "Our readers expect innovation from us — we were Africa's first newspaper on the internet, and conversational creatives let our audience engage in a new way with the brands that advertise with us."
A publisher with a history of firsts
The Mail & Guardian began in 1985 as the Weekly Mail, founded by journalists Anton Harber and Irwin Manoim after the apartheid government's pressure closed the Rand Daily Mail — and it spent the following decade defying state-of-emergency censorship to report what others could not. A partnership with Britain's The Guardian brought the name it carries today. In 1994 it became the first news publication in Africa on the internet, as the Electronic Mail & Guardian, years before most of the world's newspapers had a website. Three decades later it remains one of the continent's most trusted mastheads — home to award-winning investigative journalism — and, with this announcement, first once more.
Legate Ads™ is engineered for environments where trust is the product. Campaigns on Mail & Guardian inventory will be available through the M&G's commercial team.
About the Mail & Guardian
Founded in 1985 as the Weekly Mail, the Mail & Guardian is one of Africa's leading independent news publications and became the continent's first newspaper on the internet in 1994. It reaches millions of readers monthly with award-winning journalism. mg.co.za
About Agentic Tech LLC
Agentic Tech is an Atlanta-based AI engineering firm and the creator of Legate Ads™ — governed AI agents served as standard display-ad creatives ("conversational creatives"). The company builds and manages production AI agents and is a member of the Claude Partner Network.
Media contacts
Mail & Guardian — Bryan Khumalo · bryank@mg.co.za · +27 (11) 250-7300
Agentic Tech — Renier du Plessis · hello@agentic-tech.us · +1 (678) 949-0859
