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Yango Enhances Yasmina AI For Improved Conversations

The tech company has upgraded its AI assistant to deliver enhanced creativity, deeper conversations, and advanced bilingual translation.

Published

1 year ago

June 12, 2025

Nour Nasir

Yango

Global technology company Yango Group has announced a significant upgrade to the large language model (LLM) powering its AI assistant, Yasmina. This enhancement allows Yasmina to deliver more accurate, nuanced, and context-aware responses in Arabic and English, improving interactions and user experience across the Middle East region.

The upgrade is part of a phased rollout of YangoAI, the company’s suite of advanced AI technologies specifically adapted to regional needs. As a result, Yasmina now offers 38% more accurate and timely responses in Arabic, made possible by an enhanced ability to analyze web documents. Additionally, unnecessary answer refusals have been reduced by almost 50%, ensuring smoother and more engaging conversational experiences.

One of the most notable new capabilities of Yasmina is its expanded bilingual translation skill. The improved assistant empowers bilingual users, educators, language learners, and content creators to seamlessly translate conversations between Arabic and English, facilitating better communication and understanding.

Beyond translation, Yasmina can now provide highly contextual recommendations for everyday activities and lifestyle choices. Users seeking personalized suggestions — for instance, how to spend a day in Dubai exploring both modern and traditional attractions — will experience enhanced clarity and precision from the assistant.

The assistant’s upgraded functionality also aids users with tasks such as real-time currency conversion, homework support that encourages independent thinking, creative brainstorming, poetry and storytelling, and even providing riddles suitable for children.

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“With more precise and culturally aware responses, along with additional skills, Yasmina’s latest upgrade positions it as a trusted everyday companion,” said Rami Abu Arja, Senior Innovation Marketing Manager at Yasmina, Yango Middle East. “From creative storytelling to translation, we are enriching lives with human-centered AI and making innovation more accessible to all. As the region embraces digital transformation, we continue to enhance our AI assistant, aiming to make it even more helpful, versatile, and relevant”.

YangoAI’s continuous training on region-specific data ensures that Yasmina and other Yango services authentically reflect local culture and user expectations across the Middle East.

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Syria Just Got Its First Super App Featuring Built-In Digital Payments

Built by UAE-based Syrian founders with the Ministry of Tourism’s backing, My Syria lands as visitor numbers more than double.

Published

5 days ago

August 1, 2026

Nour Nasir

syria just got its first super app featuring built-in digital payments

For most of the past decade, paying for anything in Syria with an international card was effectively impossible. Sanctions, a collapsed banking sector, and years of isolation left the country running on cash. That is what makes the launch of My Syria — the country’s first super app — more than a routine product announcement.

Developed by 121 Living, a company founded by four UAE-based Syrian entrepreneurs — Rami Kaiem, Feras Kaiem, Waseem Qudmani, and Kinan Madi — the app launched in Damascus on July 30 under the patronage of Minister of Tourism Mazen Al-Salhani. It bundles hotels, restaurants, transport, attractions, food delivery, and other lifestyle services into a single platform, currently offering eight services with plans to expand to more than 40 verified tourism and hospitality providers across the country.

Although the app already sounds enticing, the headline feature is its built-in payments. My Syria is the first platform in Syria to support cross-border digital payments through Apple Pay, Google Pay, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express — familiar tools for international visitors, and a route into the digital economy for local businesses that have long operated outside it.

my syria super app launch event

The launch rides on a sharp rebound for the troubled country. Syria’s tourism sector recorded 3.52 million visitor arrivals in the first half of 2026, a 111 percent increase over the 1.67 million during the same period in 2025 — a mix of returning expatriates, regional visitors, and international tourists.

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The Ministry of Tourism, which supported and supervised the app’s development, frames the launch as proof of concept for a wider strategy. “Digital transformation is one of the Ministry’s strategic priorities because it enables us to build a more competitive, connected and investment-ready tourism sector,” Al-Salhani said, inviting technology companies “globally, regionally and locally” to explore opportunities across the wider economy.

For 121 Living, this is phase one, with additional services and expanded geographic coverage planned. Whether a super app can flourish in a market still rebuilding its infrastructure is an open question, but for the first time in years, a visitor to Damascus can pay for dinner with their phone.