Kenya, 27 October 2025 - Africa’s tech industry is evolving fast. Artificial intelligence (AI) and digital tools are driving efficiency, boosting productivity, and creating new markets.
AI is no longer a future dream in Africa.
It is already reshaping how businesses sell, clinics diagnose, banks lend, and newsrooms report.
From Nairobi to Lagos, Cairo, to Pretoria, companies and governments are experimenting with artificial intelligence to cut costs, reach more people, and build new products. But rapid adoption also raises questions about data, jobs, and who benefits next.
Three things make this moment different: much stronger computing power in the cloud, growing local talent, and a flood of affordable AI tools. Large tech partnerships and local startups mean both big companies and small teams can deploy smart systems quickly, for customer service, credit scoring, medical screening, and more.
Microsoft’s continued partnership with OpenAI also keeps the most powerful AI models within reach of businesses that can afford cloud services.
As Microsoft put it in a public post: “The key elements of our partnership remain in place … with our access to OpenAI’s IP,” language that signals large-scale, sustained AI availability via Microsoft platforms.
How African Businesses are Using AI
Healthcare:
In Kenya and Nigeria, pilots using AI for screening and health messaging have cut diagnostic errors and expanded reach. Projects that combine AI with mobile outreach show promise for faster TB and maternal-health screening in remote areas. One evaluation of AI-driven health messaging in Kenya and Nigeria reported measurable improvements in reach and comprehension among mothers.
Finance:
Kenyan fintech and banks are massive AI users. Mobile money platforms and banks use chatbots and predictive analytics to handle millions of routine queries, reducing call-centre costs and improving speed. AI also powers alternative-data credit scoring (using airtime, payment history, and mobile behaviour) to extend loans to people with no traditional credit records. Mastercard’s research and fintech trackers document growing AI use across banks and payment platforms in 2025.
Media and Journalism:
Newsrooms are experimenting with AI to summarise documents, speed up transcription, and generate leads for reporters, with training programmes running across several African countries to help journalists use AI responsibly. Institutions such as the Reuters Institute and the Thomson Reuters Foundation have run pilots and training modules for African newsrooms on trustworthy AI use.
Startups:
Across the continent hundreds of AI startups are building local products, predictive credit, retail analytics, health platforms and language tools. Recent lists of African startups highlight dozens of AI-led firms in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa harnessing data to tackle local problems
Language work:
Major telecom and tech firms are adapting global AI models to African languages. In one high-profile example, Orange announced collaborations to refine language models for regional African languages, a change that could make voice-driven services and automated customer help far more useful across West and Central Africa.
The Kenya Picture, Where Things are Moving Fast
In Kenya, the AI story is practical and visible:
1. Banking & Fintech
At Equity Bank, AI now drives fraud detection and customer support. The bank’s EazzyChat assistant (piloted on WhatsApp) handles routine questions and transactions instantly, reducing branch congestion.
Meanwhile, Safaricom’s M-Pesa has integrated machine-learning systems for credit scoring on Fuliza and M-Shwari, analysing spending patterns to determine loan eligibility.
“We’re using AI to understand customers’ behaviour better and design products around their needs,” said Safaricom’s Chief Data Officer, Angela Mwirigi, during the 2025 Connected Kenya Summit.
Across Africa, Flutterwave in Nigeria and Chipper Cash in Uganda are using predictive analytics for anti-money-laundering compliance, showing how fintech firms are embracing AI to manage regulatory risk while boosting trust.
2. Health & Social Impact
At Kenyatta National Hospital, AI-assisted imaging tools have improved early cancer detection. In partnership with IBM and the Ministry of Health, the hospital uses algorithms to flag anomalies in scans faster than manual review, helping doctors prioritise urgent cases.
In western Kenya, the Amref Health Africa “AI for Health” pilot uses mobile-based diagnostic chatbots that screen for malaria and TB symptoms before connecting users to clinicians. These tools are trained in Swahili and local dialects, expanding access in remote counties.
“AI is not replacing doctors, it’s helping us reach patients sooner,” said Dr Elizabeth Ominde, an Amref regional health technologist.
3. Media & Creative Industries
In Nairobi’s media training spaces, including Switch Media School and Africa Digital Media Institute (ADMI), journalism students now use tools like ChatGPT and Descript for scripting, captioning and sound mastering.
Local newsrooms such as Nation Media Group and The Standard Group are experimenting with AI-assisted transcription and audience analytics to deliver faster news and optimise digital reach.
4. Agriculture & Climate
The World Food Programme Innovation Hub in Kenya has launched AI-driven weather alert systems for farmers.
Using satellite data and machine learning, the system predicts rainfall and drought patterns, helping smallholder farmers in Kitui and Turkana adjust planting cycles.
Kenyan startup Illuminum Greenhouses also uses AI sensors to automate irrigation, saving up to 60% of water use while increasing yields.
5. Education & Talent Development
AI skills training is scaling fast. The Google Hustle Academy, Microsoft’s AI Skills Initiative, and Ajira Digital now offer short courses to help young people integrate AI tools into marketing, freelancing, and customer service.
“The next wave of opportunity lies in practical AI, using tools people already have access to,” said Jack Ngare, Africa Director for Google Cloud.
6. Governance and Public Sector
The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has integrated AI into its iTax platform for anomaly detection in filings, cutting down on fraud. The Huduma Kenya programme is also exploring AI chat assistants to handle citizen service queries in English and Kiswahili.
Across the Continent
In Rwanda, drones equipped with AI navigation deliver blood supplies through Zipline, reducing delivery time by 80%.
In South Africa, Discovery Health uses AI for claims processing and predictive patient management. These examples show Africa’s shift from AI as a “buzzword” to a practical productivity engine.
The Gains and the Real Risks
Gains
AI is quietly transforming everyday services across Kenya and Africa. Banks and telecoms are using it to automate millions of simple customer requests, cutting long queues and speeding up response times.
In healthcare, AI chatbots and digital screening tools are extending medical access to rural communities, helping diagnose and connect patients to care faster.
Meanwhile, startups are using AI to design new products, from instant microcredit and retail analytics to smart assistants that understand local languages, making innovation feel more inclusive than ever before.
Risks
Yet the rise of AI across Africa also brings growing pains.
Data governance remains a key challenge, with many projects reusing customer information without clear consent frameworks, an issue now drawing urgent attention from policymakers shaping Kenya’s and Africa’s AI strategies.
Unequal investment adds another layer of concern, as most funding flows to just a handful of countries, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt, leaving others behind in the digital divide.
At the same time, automation is reshaping jobs, forcing industries to rethink skills and training.
Encouragingly, programs and applications for journalists, healthcare workers, and tech professionals are already scaling up to help workers adapt to higher-value roles.
And as AI models often rely on Western datasets, efforts are underway to localise them, like Orange’s work on African language adaptation, ensuring technology understands the people it serves.
What Businesses and Policymakers Must Do Now
1. Set clear rules for data use and local governance. Kenya’s draft AI strategy emphasizes data sovereignty; governments should make rules that protect citizens while allowing innovation.
2. Invest in skills at scale. Public–private training programmes must teach workers to use AI tools safely and productively. Newsroom and industry programs are good models.
3. Focus on local problems and language. Companies should adapt models to local languages and conditions so tools behave correctly and are trusted. Orange and other partnerships are moving this way.
4. Encourage ethical, transparent adoption. Firms should publish simple explainers of how AI is used in services (e.g., customer-service bots, credit scoring) and create complaint channels.
AI is already changing Africa’s business landscape in real, measurable ways, from speeding up banking to supporting health outreach and making newsrooms more efficient.
Kenya is among the leaders, but success will depend on fair rules, broad skills training and adapting AI to the continent’s languages and needs.
Done right, AI could be the tool that helps Africa move from raw-resource economies to knowledge and services exporters.
Done badly, it risks amplifying inequality and handing too much control to a few big platforms.
