Africa-Press – Ethiopia. AFRICA must shift from being a passive consumer of foreign-developed artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to producing its own solutions that respond directly to the continent’s unique challenges, Winfield Strategy and Innovation general manager Simba Kanenungo has said.
Kanenungo was speaking on The AI Ready Strategy: Design Thinking for Organisational Resilience in a Dynamic African Market during the Ideas Festival, which opened at Troutbeck Resort in Nyanga yesterday.
He said the conversation around innovation in Africa was evolving, with AI now positioned as the next frontier for problem-solving, economic transformation and development.
“We were just talking about the movement or the transition from innovation to artificial intelligence,” Kanenungo said.
“And I was trying to explain how artificial intelligence is an extension of innovation.
“When we say innovation, it’s just a model, a process, a product that is novel, that is useful to the end user.”
He noted that Africa can no longer depend on solutions designed in foreign markets, which often fail to address local needs, adding that local capacity-building and investment in AI infrastructure were critical.
“Artificial intelligence comes in to give us solutions to solve African problems at this moment.
“And I think, as of now, Mr Strive Masiyiwa has invested US$720 million to set up artificial intelligence platforms so that Africans can benefit from that.
“Because we believe that we can’t continue to inherit solutions (we resort to) artificial intelligence, from the West, from developed countries, which is not relevant to our challenges and our problems.”
However, Kanenungo stressed that embracing AI should be accompanied by strong governance frameworks to manage risks, ethics and social implications.
“Artificial intelligence is not the enemy.
“We need to then say, so how do we govern it, how do we manage the risk associated with it, because it has its positives and negatives.
“The biggest thing is for us to come up with governing structures or frameworks that help to govern artificial intelligence and then our role as human beings is to continue to shape the direction.”
He added that the continent was still lagging behind in developing policies that support AI adoption.
“At this moment, people are still trying to figure out what AI is. Meanwhile, it’s three, four years ahead of us.
“The train is already moving and I think we should be at the front foot of saying how do we then put these policies in place that help us to get the rewards of artificial intelligence.”
Kanenungo pointed to weak infrastructure in Zimbabwe as one of the barriers to AI deployment.
He said Zimbabwe’s infrastructure was still lagging behind, adding that a lot of work still needed to be done, such as setting up processors and platforms to create the ecosystem that enables the nation.
“So at this moment, I think we are way, way behind,” he said.
In Conversation with Trevor Ideas Festival in its fourth session continues to cement its place as Zimbabwe’s premier platform for bold conversations on leadership, innovation and economic transformation.
An annual apolitical gathering, the festival champions open dialogue and practical solutions to shape the country’s future.
The event is running under the theme The Future of Human Capital, Innovation and Ethics in the Age of AI.
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