What will it take for African youth and creative industries to harness the power of artificial intelligence at scale? This was the central question as talent accelerator ALX and OpenAI hosted an event, "Building Africa's AI Future," at the ALX Hub in Braamfontein this June.

The session brought founders, creatives, technologists, and educators together to explore the practical steps needed to integrate AI into the continent's growth story. Speakers made it clear that Africa's AI future will be built on access, education, human capability, and solving real-world problems. 

"AI is a powerful multiplier of the talent and entrepreneurship, and those who learn to leverage it effectively will lead the way," said keynote speakerEmmanuel Lubanzadio, OpenAI's Africa Lead. He said that while jobs will disappear, others will be created. "Technological disruption always comes with change. The real work for us, as parents, educators, companies and governments, is to figure out how to prepare for that disruption and how to create new jobs out of it."

Gatekeepers are gone, and African voices are travelling

Access was a strong theme for all speakers. For Colin Gayle, founder and CEO of Africa Creative Agency, the shift is structural. "Social media and AI have removed the gatekeepers. We have access to platforms, to audience and to tools to articulate our creativity to the world," he said. 

Writer and director Karabo Lediga, known for Netflix's first African original and her feature film Sabbatical, was clear that the global appetite for African work is not about sudden improvement. "We didn't get better. We just were exposed to the world," she said. Streaming made African stories visible, and audiences responded to authenticity. 
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​Farai Ntuli, who drives partnerships for Canva in Africa, spoke from a design perspective. "A few years ago, putting yourself out there was expensive,” she said. "Now a petrol attendant can show you his life every single day. Whether you run a shisanyama in the township or a law firm in the city, you are reaching for the same tools."

Closing the skills gap to harness AI

A recurring theme was the gap between what AI can do and how most people are actually using it. Lubanzadio says that while ChatGPT has more than 900 million weekly users worldwide, many across Africa, understanding remains has not kept pace with capability. "We need to demystify AI," he said. "People often operate in bubbles and silos. Raising awareness has to be a collective effort, from parents to schools to companies."

Gayle embraced AI early and runs around 27 AI agents through his working day. "People have just replaced Google with AI. That was maybe right a year ago," he said. "Move your head out of AI being a research tool. It is a doer. If you have an idea, you can build agents to find your audience, test how it resonates and work out how to monetise it. Your imagination is the key. If you can dream it, you can build it."

Lediga explained the possibilities as a writer. "AI has saved my life on research. It is fast, and it helps me build treatments for worlds that do not exist yet," she said. "But when people try to generate scripts, I can tell immediately. If you have not put your real, honest voice into it, the soul is not there. This is Soweto, but it reads like America."

Ntuli addressed the fear that AI will replace people. "AI won't replace you, but you'll be replaced by those who leverage AI every single day." Most frustration with AI, she added, comes down to weak prompting. Her practical recommendation was simple: learn to prompt properly, automate the repetitive work, and free yourself for the thinking that actually matters.”

Education is the real unlock, and ALX is built for it

If access opens the door, education determines who walks through it. Lubanzadio questioned whether education curricula are ready for what he called the intelligent age, and argued that protecting people from harms like deepfakes is fundamentally an education problem. Driving awareness has to be a collective responsibility, he says.

That call connects directly to what ALX does. As a pan-African educator delivering AI and technology skills at scale, ALX has built its model around turning ambition into measurable outcomes. To date, 347,100 people have graduated from its programmes. Across the continent, 63% find gainful employment through work or entrepreneurship within six months. In South Africa, that figure rises to 67%.

“The gap between what AI can do and what people understand closes through structured, accessible learning, delivered where young Africans actually are,” says Aisha Jackson, General Manager for ALX South Africa. ALX's self-paced, modular approach speaks to a practical reality raised throughout the day. "People learning AI skills are usually doing so while working, running a side hustle or managing a household," Jackson says. "Education that fits around real, complicated lives is what makes transformation believable for the person still deciding whether to start."

Human skills become more valuable in an AI world

AI is likely to reshape employment in Africa in a mixed but opportunity-rich way—not simply by removing jobs, but by transforming how work is created, accessed, and scaled. For all the talk of agents and automation, the speakers agreed that the skills that matter most in an AI era are human.

"Human connection, empathy, care, respect — will remain very important," Lubanzadio said, noting that these qualities are not easily automated and become more valuable as machines take on routine work. He pointed to public speaking, genuine relationships and the ability to read a room as durable advantages.

Ntuli offered three skills she believes every business owner will need in 2026: adaptability, critical thinking and the ability to leverage technology without fear. She emphasised critical thinking, and not outsourcing your judgement to a tool that agrees with you. "Something we do have to be careful of from an AI perspective is to not outsource your thinking. If you provided a prompt, can you inspect that thoroughly? Can you evaluate what's been shared with you? And can you challenge your AI?" She tells her own AI to stop being agreeable, to be honest when an idea is weak, and to surface what critics would say. 
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​The last one is about being able to leverage technology and not being afraid of it. "I've seen some incredible creators who have embedded technology into what they do while still serving people and without losing the essence of what that looks like. Whether we like it or not, AI is accelerating every single day. And it's about how do you get ahead of the curve so that you can use it to benefit you."

Believable opportunity, built through community

Gayle returned to a principle he credits for his own career: scale knowledge and information rather than hoard it. Women in his industry helped him early on and asked for nothing in return, except that he pass it forward. "What I give to you for free, give it to the next person. That's the only way that we can scale," he said. Lift as you rise, and ask nothing back.

He emphasised that the technology expedites ideas. It does not replace the person behind them. "Always remember: human first, AI second." ​ 

Ntuli highlighted the magnitude of opportunities AI presents, urging individuals to actively engage with this technology to improve their businesses and workflows. "In the next 10 years where there will be millions of millionaires created through AI. The business ideas, the concepts are sitting there. And how are you leveraging it to improve your business?" 

The day ended with proof as three ALX founders, all through the organisation's incubator programmes, pitched solutions built for real African problems. Lubabalo Mahonga presented Pharmanexx, helping patients compare live pharmacy prices and giving independent pharmacies the tools to compete with chains. Boitumelo Moeca pitched COVO, which connects brands to creators by working backwards from sales data rather than follower counts. Sihle Msweli showed Credexx, a credit intelligence platform that reads live transaction data to widen access to credit while cutting defaults.

Each founder represented the event's central argument. Access to AI, education and human capability turn ambition into ventures that hire others and change perception. The edge Africa holds is not borrowed, and as Lediga reminded the room, it cannot be copied. The work now is to back it, teach it and build on it at scale.
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