The Next Billion-Dollar Opportunity in Africa? AI and Data

[00:00:05][music] >> Africa's AI revolution isn't coming.

[00:00:08]It's already here. And today in Lagos, some of Africa's biggest technology leaders, innovators, policy makers, and business executives are gathering here to answer one critical question. How can Africa use data and AI to solve its biggest challenges and create its biggest opportunities? I am Olushegun.

[00:00:32]We are here at the Blue Chip Data and AI Summit 3.0 at Eko Hotels, where conversations around innovation, digital transformation, data sovereignty, enterprise intelligence, and the future of work are taking center stage. From banking and health care to agriculture and public service, today's discussions could shape how governments and businesses across Africa could leverage AI in the years ahead. Now, let's hear what the business industry leaders have to say.

[00:01:07]>> I mean, the very, very interesting time ahead of the building with in this information age and knowledge economy. Um to be able to build faster, be able to build um cheaper, be able to build with more confidence. And I think that's the opportunity that AI provides us. At Blue Chip, >> [music] >> we've been at the forefront of the data story. Um we built the data warehouses for most of the telcos and [music] um banks. From then on, we then built I migrated them to big data frameworks.

[00:01:34][music] And now we've built They're leading them into their AI journey. So, um the whole essence of this um festival, as someone called it, is to bring back uh is to bring all our key partners, our key clients. So, if you look in the room, you'll see the likes of Oracle, Dell, um AWS, HP, um all the leading OEMs um in the market from technology standpoint and all the builders who are building on those technologies to to leverage [music] and those technologies to build for the African market and solve problems that African businesses have.

[00:02:09]>> Currently we just got acquisition of the NGBT which is now solving translating different languages to people. So if you are speaking English and then you need AI into your application, we have NGBT that will help you translate to Yoruba, English, Pidgin and Hausa as well. AI can solve that problem in a way that we can learn more. Since we have AI that can translate, you don't necessarily need to type. You just need to be able to even send like a voice note or something and it can help you, you know, solve whatever problem it is that you are facing.

[00:02:45]>> You have to create an enabling environment.

[00:02:48]Secondly, yes, issues issue because we need regulation and we need smart regulations.

[00:02:56]You know, things that are not stifling are not stifling innovation.

[00:03:02]I think they can support even good education as well.

[00:03:08]>> And this demographic of Nigerian is a lot of Nigerian youth are technology inclined and this summit brings together a lot of like-minds ensuring that they are kept busy and they are also in tune with what's happening in the tech ecosystem, right? So it's always good to have events like this where we bring together the younger generation and get them involved in technology because the way technology is expanding, we need a lot lot of hands on deck. We need a lot of people to get involved and to, you know, take advantage of the numerous perks that >> That's interesting because I'm I'm particularly excited about about the the culture we have here because you have a lot of young people who aren't looking at the past, they're looking forward and Nigeria is a place where a lot of the tools, for example, Fable, which is the latest model for our product, came out last night. And a lot of the guys on on our team here are already using it. So, I think the future is here and the future is is in Nigeria and the youth population are really embracing these tools. So, I think for me it is it's a really positive step in the right direction.

[00:04:11]So, we're very engineering heavy in our team. So, our products which turn out features every couple of days.

[00:04:19]We want to be as automated as possible.

[00:04:21]So, we have humans in the middle, but we're heavily AI invested in terms of engineering infrastructure and also reliability of our product.

[00:04:32]Nigerian youth as massively relevant because anybody who is coming up today has to be like totally literate in this stuff, right? So, whether it's you know, through your study or just the kind of like differentiate yourself a little bit, you've got to know how to factor AI into your everyday work.

[00:04:52]>> [music] >> Um And I think right now is a super exciting time.

[00:04:58]Like, if you've got some basic understanding, you can come in and like what we do as a company is remember, so we use AI in everything we do, but always remember there's a human in the loop.

[00:05:10]>> Uh whereas for Gida, it's specifically to solve enterprise AI problems. Um organizations are coming to us with their problems. Um for most organizations, they may not even know what problems they want to solve, all right? And then when it comes to us with that problem, we give them an AI solution. And then so, what we do here at Gida is to first understand what problems the organizations have.

[00:05:34]And then we come up with solutions, AI and data-driven solutions. Then we fix that for them, we design custom solutions, we create automations for them. But the end goal for us is to automate whatever processes and also drive up our the bottom line. Thank you.

[00:05:49]>> The youth is like our future here.

[00:05:52]They're the future leaders, and technology is going so quickly, and we can focus all on the technology side of things, but it's like really putting the people element of that. How do we not lose the human element AI transformation, and really use AI for the things that we are mundane repetitive, but then leave the real, you know, real strategic judgment thinking for the for the people, and and that's will shape how we like think.

[00:06:23]>> And I'm actually pleased that events like this are not just occurring, but growing larger and larger every single year. And when I say larger, not just by the venue, but by the audience. The audience are more diverse, a lot more youthful, um and then also a lot more mature. So, there are a lot of older people that in my opinion that were um >> [music] >> apprehensive about the advancement of AI, the speed at which AI was basically uh going into different fields that people had studied years and years to master. Uh last year, I developed something called the AI ready broadcaster toolkit. I've been in broadcasting for over 22 years, >> [music] >> and I realized down the line that with all the breaking news and the scripting and the productions, a lot of people in broadcasting were not prepared for the AI revolution. And they were worried that [music] AI was going to take their jobs. Essentially, the voiceover jobs we were getting could become, you know, just taken over by AI, etc., etc. >> are into the AI industry.

[00:07:35]Uh a lot of great things Uh and so that AI is not a level of I think that >> I I think AI will will take more jobs. Will take a lot of jobs. Uh but it will create new jobs. It will create new opportunities for people to do more with less.

[00:08:19]Uh you would have one person build a company because AI allows them to do that. And so you have more people building companies, more people building products. So while it might take some traditional jobs, uh it will create more jobs.