AI Skills Development in Africa – New Report Findings Revealed

With Africa’s digital economy set to grow from 5.2% of GDP in 2025, to 8.5% by 2030 and the South African digital economy, estimated to be between 15%-20% of the country’s GDP, it stands to reason that a great part of this growth is anticipated to be around new AI developments.

Nazia Pillay, Interim Managing Director for South Africa at SAP. Portal ERP South Africa. 

Having said that, there is a challenge that will need to be met, in order to make that type of impact – the need for AI skills development and training.

I Skills Readiness Report Released

SAP has released a new report this week – ‘Africa’s AI Skills Readiness Revealed’, which provides research into how African companies are tackling the challenge of AI skills development and provides a view of the landscape of AI integration in corporate entities across Africa.

Nazia Pillay, Interim Managing Director for South Africa at SAP, says: “The data is clear: African companies expect the demand for AI skills to increase this year, with six in ten saying AI skills are ‘extremely important’ to their success. The business impact of a lack of AI skills availability is already evident, with 90% of companies in our research citing negative impacts that include project delays, failed innovation initiatives, and an inability to take on new work.”

Fresh Insights Provided

SAP’s latest report follows an earlier tech skills report released in 2023 which unveiled specific challenges and opportunities for African organisations seeking greater tech skills availability.

“Our first report was conducted just as we exited the worst of the pandemic impact. At the time, companies were facing several challenges with attracting, retaining and upskilling suitable qualified tech workers, especially in the wake of the rise of remote and hybrid work environments. This year, the business landscape has been transformed by the impact of AI technologies and the search for relevant skills.”

The research was conducted at the end of 2024 among both mid-size and enterprise-level companies, but was limited to the three main AI development areas in Africa, Namely: Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

Universal need for AI skills

All organisations surveyed as part of the research, said they expect the demand for AI skills to increase in 2025, as well as every organisation also expecting an AI related skills gap in their organisation this year.

The report indicates that skills related to AI are hugely in-demand among African organisations, with 85% saying AI development skills are a priority, and 83% prioritising Generative AI skills.

To help close the AI skills gap, two-thirds of organisations are introducing career development initiatives with AI specialisation to upskill or reskill employees.

Overall, the most in-demand tech skill among African organisations is cybersecurity. Eighty-six percent of companies said cybersecurity skills were important to them, a significant increase over the 63% that said the same in our previous research. The growing importance of cybersecurity may be partly explained by the rapid growth of Africa’s digital economy and the millions of citizens that are being brought into the digital fold through public and private sector initiatives.

Changing workplace expectations

There are far-reaching changes in the expectations of both employers and employees regarding skills and the workplace compared to a few years ago, with eight in ten African organisations saying that supporting skilled employees’ requests for hybrid or remote work is their top skills-related challenge this year. This is a significant increase from only 32% who said the same in our previous survey.

The non-technical attributes that African organisations look for in potential hires have also evolved.

In 2023, technical skills and industry-specific skills were the top attributes with affordability close to the  bottom of the list.

Less than a third of organisations said they consider affordability during the hiring process. In a big turn-around, this year, affordability is the number one candidate attribute for African organisations, with adaptability a close second.

Adaptability is essential in light of the need for employees to be upskilled or reskilled with AI skills with  reskilling taking the top priority at 38% of companies this year.  48% indicate the same for upskilling employees. Unsurprisingly, two-thirds of companies said helping employees understand why reskilling is necessary is one of the top challenges this year.

Training, skills development in the spotlight

Pillay says companies are stepping up their IT training and skills development efforts to help meet the demand for skills. “Ninety-four percent of African organisations offer training and skills development to employees at least monthly, an increase from 74% in our last survey. The number of companies offering training opportunities to employees at any time also increased from 28% in our last survey to 37% this year.”

Surprisingly, the portion of companies’ IT or HR budgets allocated to skills-related initiatives has declined since 2023. “The drop in budget allocation for skills development requires an urgent rethink. Organisations that don’t invest in appropriate skills now may find they are unable to leverage new innovations and emerging technologies, leaving them trailing their more skills-enable competitors.”