NAIROBI, Kenya, August 23 – Kenya has recorded an upsurge in artificial intelligence (AI) searches, highlighting growing interest in the technology.
According to Google, Kenya has the fourth highest search interest in AI in Africa and ranks 13th globally this year.
In Kenya alone, searches for ‘what is AI’ and ‘how to use AI’ accelerated by 60 percent and 90 percent, respectively.
“AI has the potential to create opportunities—from the extraordinary to the every day—for everyone, bringing new waves of innovation, social and economic progress,” Agnes Gathaiya, the country director for Google East Africa, said.
“So it’s no surprise that the people of Kenya are already looking to make the most of this transformational technology—finding ways to learn more AI skills to boost their career, creativity, and society.”
The search engine has further said that trending searches including ‘AI-generated images’, ‘AI logo maker’, ‘AI text chat generator’, and ‘ask AI questions’, which have increased drastically to 5,000 percent in the country, also reflect Kenyans’s interest in boosting their creativity and careers using the technology.
Search interest in cybersecurity and AI also doubled by 110 percent, while searches for AI and medicine and AI and healthcare increased by 50 percent, which showed a clear interest in the future of AI for science.
According to experts, Kenya is among the East African nations that are emerging as regional tech hubs, with a growing number of AI initiatives.
In the country, AI has been applied across several sectors, including agriculture, health, education, fintech, and transport.
In 2018, the Kenyan government commissioned the Blockchain and AI Taskforce to provide directions on how best to utilize AI.
