Kenya is the fifth-most prepared government in Africa to use artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver services to the general people, according to a recent international poll.

Kenya’s overall score of 40.36 per cent in the Oxford Insights’ annual Government AI Readiness Index for 2022 places it below Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia, and Morocco.

As nations lay the ground for the disruption anticipated from the new technology, Kenya was rated 90th globally. Many governments are looking to use AI within their operations and public service delivery.

AI is being used with the goal of improving efficiency in the delivery of services, ensuring fairer access to services, and enhancing citizens’ experience of services.

Kenya had a terrible score of 28.76 per cent on the technology sector pillar, which assesses the availability of necessary skills to enable AI deployment. This is lower than the global average of 35.17 per cent.

Personalised learning

“There is a lack of understanding about what foundations are needed for a government to be in the position to integrate AI into services and, beyond that, what it takes for AI to then be used in government effectively and responsibly,” says the study.

The report is being released while AI is becoming more popular all around the world. Analysts say the technology would be useful in areas like improving educational outcomes through personalised learning, disease prevention, and weather forecasting if the right set of skill base were built in Kenya.

According to Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence in the Middle East and Africa Outlook report, Kenya’s total investment in AI over the last 10 years is expected to be Sh13 billion, which is hardly comparable to South Africa’s Sh165.8 billion and Nigeria’s 60.3 billion. ICT experts claim that data and tech skills are more important than any other elements for the growth of AI in the nation and that solving these problems will be the only way for AI to take off.

Since AI develops algorithms for predictions primarily based on historical data, data is the engine of AI. If that’s lacking, adds that the power and impact of AI will be suboptimal or, worse yet, have a negative impact.