By Linda Saunders, Country Manager & Senior Director Solution Engineering, Africa, Salesforce
Generative AI has become the new frontier of workplace productivity, efficiently rewriting emails, analysing data, recording meetings, and automating complex tasks. This powerful technology is being adopted rapidly across the continent.
In Africa, approximately 40% of organisations are either experimenting with or deploying generative AI tools. This adoption is already yielding measurable success: 51% of South African businesses believe generative AI has improved productivity and competitiveness.
Governance: The foundation for reliable innovation
To ensure this growth is reliable and responsible, organisations must build a foundation of trust. AI runs on data, and data runs on trust. Building a healthy data culture involves knowing what information is held, where it lives, who can use it, and for what purpose.
This is where governance comes in, providing structure and discipline. Governance establishes the standards and controls necessary to ensure information accuracy and security, as well as the accountability to uphold them. Crucially, when governance works as it should, it doesn’t slow innovation - it makes it safer and faster. Clear rules give businesses the confidence to move quickly, use data creatively, and make better decisions.
African nations are proactively establishing strong legal foundations for trust in the digital space. For instance, South Africa mandates that boards are held responsible for managing data risk and ensuring lawful usage through its Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and the King IV Code. Similarly, Nigeria’s Data Protection Act demands essential principles like transparency, consent, and human oversight in data handling. Meanwhile, in Kenya, the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy (MICDE) is the primary governmental body actively driving cybersecurity and AI governance efforts.
Strategic security for sustainable growth
Africa’s AI market is projected for significant expansion, expected to reach around $6.4 billion by the end of 2025, supported by more than 2,400 AI-focused companies. This growth won’t be sustainable without strong foundations.
While the technology that makes work smarter can also be used by cybercriminals (e.g., forging images or cloning voices), organisations are implementing strategic solutions to mitigate these risks. Boards and executives must look at information governance as a strategic priority, not merely a technical one.
Technology offers robust support for this strategic focus: platforms can automate data protection, monitor activity, and simplify compliance, helping with the heavy lifting of security.
Empowering the human element
Cybersecurity, data governance, and training must all work together to maintain a secure system. Employees are essential, remaining the first and last line of defence.
Top down organisational culture is key to empowering employees with necessary skills. These essential skills include recognising manipulated voices, spotting deepfakes, avoiding suspicious links, and questioning urgent payment requests.
The safest way to work with AI is to treat data with the same care afforded to money or reputation. By integrating rules, oversight, and discipline, organisations keep the system honest. The principle guiding this growth remains clear: progress is nothing without trust.
