The Youth Corner
The Future Of AI Is Ours If We Choose To Build It
By Norah Kimathi
For years, the global AI conversation has been dominated by the same centers of power. But something profound is shifting. Across Africa, a new generation of builders is rising, fueled by necessity and a deep understanding of the continent’ s realities. And that combination is far more powerful than many people realize. You can feel it in the small maker spaces. You can hear it in conversations at community meetups, where people talk less about catching up with the world and more about shaping their own version of it.
Africa has always been a place of invention. Long before AI became a defining technology, young people were designing workarounds and solving problems with almost nothing but grit and imagination. Now, with AI becoming the buzzword of our century, that same spirit is pushing the continent into one of its most transformative moments. In Africa, it has a deeper weight. It carries the hope of fixing something we have lived with for years; a system that leaves too many people unseen and unsupported, those who need accessible tools to thrive. Africa’ s AI future is not a promise. It’ s a choice. And it’ s time to choose boldly.
That shift changes how people build. When everyday life demands ingenuity just to move forward, you don’ t treat AI as a toy, it must matter. For years, most tools simply didn’ t understand African reality, whether it was the languages we speak, the patients our hospitals see, or the weather patterns we live under. That disconnect made technology feel distant, sometimes even dismissive.
But that’ s changing quickly. Across the continent, builders are taking control, creating datasets in local and sign languages, mapping informal communities, gathering real environmental data, and training models that understand the rhythm of life in Nairobi, Lagos, Addis, Kigali, and far beyond. They’ re building tools that hear real voices, grasp real challenges, and speak to the needs that shape our days.
This is Africa choosing not to wait for anyone. This is Africa choosing to build. What excites me most is that the driving force isn’ t money or hype. It’ s lived experience. It’ s the young person who grew up watching floods destroy crops and thinks,“ We can predict this better.” It’ s the student who watched a relative struggle in a hospital and says,“ We can design a smarter system.” It’ s the creator who sees a child with hearing loss in class and decides,“ We can build tech that speaks to them too.”
AI becomes powerful when it understands the people it serves. And we’ re finally building versions that recognize our voices, our streets, our classrooms, our humor, and our struggles. Not copied ideas. Not imported assumptions. Something truly ours. To keep this momentum alive, we need to create more local data. Not data harvested without consent, but data built with communities, with purpose, and with respect. When a model learns from our world, it becomes useful in ways global tools have never been. And we need to build with everyone in mind. People with disabilities, rural communities, women in tech, informal workers, children who can’ t afford fancy devices, they deserve to be part of the story, not added later as an afterthought. When we design for everyone, we build technology that truly serves a nation.
Call to action
If you are a policymaker, open the door wider. If you are an investor, look closer at the builders working quietly. If you are an educator, teach the next generation to dream boldly. And if you are a young African with an idea even a small one, build it. Test it. Share it. Keep going. The future of AI doesn’ t have to be written in the places that shaped the first chapter. It can be written here, by us, with our hands, in our languages, guided by our hopes.
Norah Kimathi is a multi-awardwinning young innovator with proven expertise in machine learning and computer vision. As the co-founder of Zerobionic, she is engineering the future of inclusive education in Africa through advanced robotics for inclusion. Engage her via mail at: Norah. Kimathi @ strathmore. edu.
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