Africa’s AI Opportunity: A Journey of Agency and Innovation

All over the world, technology that once felt like science fiction is becoming a part of daily life. Just recently, AI helped researchers decode the genetic roots of diseases like sickle cell with incredible precision. Here in Africa, our teams are applying that same spirit of innovation to everyday challenges, from providing more accurate weather predictions to supporting organizations like Jacaranda Health to improve maternal healthcare for new mothers.

This week, as leaders gather for the African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa, the conversation is shifting. It’s no longer just about digital access, but about digital agency: the ability for Africa to lead, create, and solve its own challenges using the power of AI. Turning this vision into reality is a journey that requires intentional action, and one we've been proud to be part of for over a decade.

Here’s how we’re helping build Africa’s AI-powered future.

Empowering Individual Potential through Education

The foundation of any digital journey is a skilled population. We believe AI has the potential to be a transformative partner for every student and teacher, turning learning from a passive experience into an active, personalized one. As part of our collaboration with the African Union, we will further strengthen our support of the AU Digital Education Strategy. We are doing this by providing governments a playbook for how to upskill youth and offering a no-cost version of Gemini and NotebookLM with enterprise-grade data protection, accessible via Google Workspace for Education.

Whether it’s a student at Addis Ababa University using Gemini as a virtual tutor or a researcher at the University of Ghana using NotebookLM to accelerate a literature review, these are the moments where opportunity turns into impact. This initiative will begin in seven countries, aiming to ensure the next generation has the AI skills and tools they need to succeed.

Building smarter, more responsive institutions

Our collective mission must also be to help transform how public sector organizations serve their citizens. Research shows that widespread AI adoption could reduce government fiscal deficits by as much as 22%. But this isn't just about efficiency; it's about building responsive services that meet community needs and support informed decision-making in real-time. To turn this into reality, we are supporting AI training of 50,000 public officials in Ethiopia, in collaboration with Apolitical, with the goal of expanding this AI literacy program across the continent together with the African Union Commission and the UN Economic Commission for Africa.

Solving societal challenges together

Perhaps the most inspiring application of AI is its ability to address challenges that affect us all. This is especially true for this year’s AU theme of "Assuring Sustainable Water Availability." By scaling our AI-powered Flood Forecasting, we’re helping people across Africa stay safe. In Nigeria, the NGO GiveDirectly used our forecasts to deliver humanitarian aid before the water rose. This early action allowed families to evacuate, construct rafts to save their assets, and stockpile supplies. We’re now expanding our work with the AU Commission to integrate these AI-driven climate predictions into regional crisis-response strategies.

Co-creating Africa's digital backbone

For decades, infrastructure meant concrete and cables. Today, it’s also about Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI): the interoperable "digital highways" for identity, payments, and data exchange. To accelerate this transition, Google and the World Bank Group have formed a strategic alliance to help African nations deploy sovereign, AI-powered open networks in months, not years.

By combining the World Bank’s expertise with Google’s technical scale, we’re helping countries move from expensive, fragmented software toward open-source protocols that allow government services to connect seamlessly while ensuring nations maintain digital sovereignty. This means a smallholder farmer with a basic mobile phone can sell crops simply by speaking in her local dialect. By supporting over 40 African languages, the technology adapts to the citizen, not the other way around. This AI-powered network serves as a force multiplier for the AU's Agenda 2063, providing the foundation for economic integration, water security, and modernized agriculture.

The greatest risk we face is not in using AI too much, but in “missed use,” which means losing out on what AI can do to improve lives. The journey ahead is one we must take together. We remain committed to working with local partners to ensure Africa doesn’t just participate in the AI era, but helps to define it.