African organizations are finding it difficult to implement artificial intelligence because of a number of obstacles, according to Saad Toma, General Manager of IBM Middle East and Africa.
Toma outlined the difficulties that African businesses confront, such as exorbitant expenses, worries about ethics and governance, worker readiness, infrastructure, and market and regulatory factors. “Africa has the potential to leapfrog traditional development stages by embracing AI and other advanced technologies,” However, we must first overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of AI adoption.” the IBM General Manager said to The PUNCH. “
During his keynote speech on Generative AI at the recently ended GITEX Africa 2024 in Morocco, he called on governments and companies to allocate resources towards creating the infrastructure, skill sets, and legal frameworks required to facilitate the adoption of AI. He declared that IBM was dedicated to assisting African organizations in their AI journey by providing a variety of services and solutions to enable them to overcome obstacles and realize AI’s potential. According to the IBM report, half of the CEOs in Africa who participated in the poll anticipate to see major benefits from sophisticated AI and analytics.
82% of IT experts worldwide claimed that the complexity of IT was preventing AI deployments from being successful, while 55% of business executives stated they lacked critical information for making informed technology expenditure decisions. Following in the footsteps of other African nations like Tunisia, Mauritius, and Egypt, Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy Bosun Tijani discussed plans to build a comprehensive national AI policy for Nigeria in October 2023.
A thorough blueprint for Nigeria’s AI strategy was developed by 120 AI researchers last month.
It is anticipated that the roadmap will cover new concepts and recent advancements in AI, like the explosion of generative AI.
According to the IBM executive, businesses need to adopt an AI-first strategy in which AI is incorporated into their overall business plan. Toma further emphasized that businesses were using generative AI at an accelerating rate in order to acquire a competitive advantage and seize new opportunities.
Ejovwoke Enakirerhi, an AI researcher at RealSearch and Partners Inc., told The PUNCH that in order to stimulate young people’s interest in the field of artificial intelligence and close the growing knowledge gap in Nigeria, it was imperative to begin. Nigeria has contributed significantly to a number of tech revolutions (e-commerce, blockchain, etc.), but Enakirerhi pointed out that there is an opportunity for us to seize the AI era and change things.
According to the study, companies have a special chance to use AI to revolutionize the economy. AI-powered solutions for customer relationship management, marketing optimization, and financial forecasting can also be advantageous for small and medium-sized businesses. Additionally, he added, chatbots and virtual assistants driven by AI can improve financial inclusion by providing financial literacy training and enabling mobile banking services in remote areas.
