Despite growing interest in artificial intelligence (AI), Africa could fall behind global leaders if businesses fail to scale adoption beyond experimentation, PwC has warned.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says African organisations must scale up artificial intelligence (AI) adoption or risk losing ground to global competitors.
The Chief Executive Officer of PwC, Dion Shango, said African organisations must focus on scaling the right AI solutions rather than limiting efforts to experimentation. He noted that Africa’s competitiveness depends on how quickly businesses adopt and integrate AI into core operations.
“Africa’s challenge is both adopting AI at scale and implementing it fast enough to remain competitive,” Shango said. “The organisations that will win are not those running the most pilots, but those that scale the right AI to transform how they create value”.
A PwC report revealed that African firms currently invest an average of just two per cent of revenue in AI, compared to about five per cent among global leaders. It also showed that only 32 per cent of executives believe current investment levels are sufficient.
PwC Nigeria Chief AI Officer, Christopher Ogirri, added that Africa’s fragmented markets and infrastructure gaps could become advantages if organisations embrace AI-driven ecosystem partnerships.
