FEB 12 – At a time when artificial intelligence is reshaping industries and redefining the global job market, a crucial question looms: Who will build the future of AI in Africa? At the AI Action Summit in Paris, Celina Lee, co-founder and chief executive of Zindi, posed an urgent challenge to policymakers, tech leaders, and investors—Africa must not be left behind.
With a young and rapidly growing population, the continent has the potential to become a global AI powerhouse. But without strategic investments in education, training, and infrastructure, that potential could remain untapped. Speaking alongside some of the world’s top AI thinkers, including Google’s James Manyika and BCG’s Sylvain Duranton, Lee argued that AI talent development is not just an economic necessity but a matter of global equity.
Lee highlighted the growing demand for AI talent in Africa—and the urgent need to equip developers with the skills and resources to meet it. While AI is poised to revolutionize industries worldwide, Lee stressed that the technology’s benefits would be unevenly distributed unless targeted investments were made to nurture talent in underserved regions.
“The AI revolution is opening up two different areas in terms of upskilling,” Lee said. “Of course, we need to help the people working in call centers, in marketing, or in sales to use AI tools more effectively in their work. But secondly, it’s opening up a whole new set of careers that didn’t exist before—those building the AI solutions—and that’s also where we need to invest.”
For Lee, ensuring that Africa participates meaningfully in the AI revolution is not just about keeping up with technological advances but also about fostering economic resilience. As automation transforms job markets, the continent’s youthful population—more than 60 percent of whom are under 25—could be either a powerful asset or a lost opportunity. Without the right training and resources, Lee warned, Africa risks being left behind.
To address this gap, Zindi recently launched the AWS IRCAI Global Challenge, an initiative designed to bridge the AI skills divide in Africa. Developed in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI), African governments, and local AI communities, the program offers emerging AI practitioners the chance to apply their skills to real-world challenges affecting the continent. Participants also gain access to mentorship and funding opportunities, which Lee believes are critical in building a sustainable AI ecosystem.
“In Africa, the software isn’t always well-adapted to the specific context,” she said. “We want to make sure that the builders of those solutions, the products and software, understand the market. And the best way we can do that is by diversifying the people who are building those AI solutions.”
The initiative comes at a pivotal moment. With companies worldwide scrambling for AI talent, Africa stands at a crossroads. The continent has the advantage of a large, young workforce, but persistent challenges—limited access to quality education, underdeveloped tech infrastructure, and insufficient investment in research—threaten to stall progress. AI, once seen as a technology confined to Silicon Valley and other established tech hubs, is now increasingly recognized as an area where Africa can carve out a competitive advantage.
The potential impact extends beyond the tech sector. In agriculture, AI-powered models can help farmers predict weather patterns and optimize crop yields. In healthcare, machine learning algorithms are already being used to diagnose diseases in remote areas with limited access to doctors. And in financial services, AI is playing a key role in expanding credit access to underserved populations. But all of this, Lee emphasized, depends on ensuring that African developers are at the forefront of designing these solutions.
By investing in local talent, she and her partners hope to foster innovation, create new job opportunities, and drive economic growth—not just in Africa, but globally. The question now is whether businesses and governments will commit the necessary resources to make that vision a reality.
