By Ongopotse Motlhanke, CEO: Khumbula Tech
Talk about AI and the discussion will invariably lead to the question of jobs. Or more specifically, how AI is set to demolish your job and my job. On a continent with some 36 million people unemployed, according to Statista, this is big and potentially unfortunate news.
Africa has an illustrious history of being home to many of civilisation’s greatest thinkers and this multi-millenia tradition continues unbroken. Today’s best African minds will no doubt agree with Khumbula Tech that AI represents one of the best hopes for a bright African future.
Generally, technology is a job creator, not a job destroyer and this bodes well for all continents, including our own. Even with all the technological advances over the past several decades, worldwide employment has significantly increased over the past fifty years. In 1975, global employment was around 1.5 billion, whereas today, it’s estimated to be over 3 billion, according to ResearchGate.
The emergence of the desktop personal computer, for instance, perhaps saw the gradual disappearance of typist as a viable profession, but dozens of job categories started appearing that we had never heard of before: computer programmer, PC technician and so on.
If we think about Artificial Intelligence, AI-specific roles are already being created. AI Prompt Engineer comes to mind – a job type that just a few years ago would have seemed like it was years in the future. Data science, machine learning and, of course, ethics: these are all fields set to boom exponentially as AI takes off. AI might well replace repetitive and routine jobs that lend themselves to automation, but it will create higher-quality employment opportunities.
Aside from better job satisfaction as the mundane is swopped-out, AI has the potential to more directly impact human wellbeing. On a continent where food security, or the lack of it, continues to make headlines, AI is already being used to optimise planting schedules and increase crop yields. If we look at the example of Omdena, a collaborative AI platform effecting real-world change, we can clearly see the potential for AI within African agriculture. Even small-scale farmers are now making data-driven decisions continent-wide with sophisticated AI analytics.
Closer to home, GreenAgri in the Western Cape has committed to a Green Economy Strategic Framework which includes smart agri-production plans increasingly centred on AI. According to the organisation: “AI is emerging as the next frontier in agricultural evolution.”
From transforming Africa’s ‘sectors that matter’, like agriculture, education and healthcare, AI will also increasingly be used to make better informed African decisions. Like the farmer who uses AI in planting schedules, governments will more often use AI to make better infrastructure policy decisions.
The African Union confirmed last year that it is committed to developing Africa’s AI capabilities and noted that the technology is “a transformative force”. Good news is that many African universities, including those in Ghana, Uganda, and SA, have developed impressive AI labs focusing on social impact and other African imperatives.
Whatever our future as individual and corporate citizens of the Bright Continent might hold, however the specifics might pan out in this new bits and bytes gold rush, Khumbula stands ready to deploy all available tools to deliver on its commitment to revolutionising client engagement and communication. We conclude with a brief reference to Khumbula’s Atlantis CPAAS solution which is already directing AI solutions towards solving African challenges.
Africa’s vibrant, youthful workforce has already embraced such innovations as SME incubators, tech precincts, gaming development hubs and more. Busy African cities already humming with positivity and an eagerness to embrace technological change represent the perfect environments for AI to thrive.