African businesses urged to accelerate AI adoption or risk losing global competitiveness

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]and to one another.

[00:00:02]Corporate Africa has been urged to scale up artificial intelligence adoption and workforce literacy or risk total loss of global competitiveness. Senior business leaders across East Africa warned that while AI is creating new opportunities for growth and innovation, it is also disrupting traditional jobs.

[00:00:22]I think the number one thing is training.

[00:00:25]Getting people to understand AI, where it is right now, where it's heading to, how to deploy it smartly, intelligently.

[00:00:34]And ensuring that that happens across the business from right from the top to the bottom, the young, the old, um everybody has to understand it. African businesses must must continuously build the capability of digital and AI in the organizations. They also must keep building the capability of their employees and the total organization from board to the bottom of the pyramid in an organization to make sure that these tools are used efficiently and in line with the regulations in a country. Investing in AI, investing in tools and technology to help uh your business to pivot to the next level is going to be critical. So, that one single investment uh that business owners will be making in terms of making the processes more efficient, hiring the right people, and then help them be sustainable.