Verraki: AI For Business Growth – Ten essential questions leaders must ask about Generative AI in Nigeria  

Nigerian businesses can achieve substantial improvements in efficiency, innovation, customer satisfaction, and competitiveness by integrating GenAI into their operations. To do this successfully, it is important that leaders understand the fundamentals of GenAI, current use cases, the risks and opportunities, regulatory concerns amongst other issues. 

The global impact of GenAI is profound, with projections suggesting a potential contribution north of $4.4 trillion to the global economy annually. This technology has rapidly gained traction across various sectors, including healthcare, education, finance, agriculture, and construction. In Africa, research labs like Google AI in Ghana, are contributing to the development of AI technologies tailored to the unique challenges of the continent. The size of the GenAI market in Africa is projected to reach US$8.7bn in 2030, with a CAGR of 46.36% between 2024-2030.

GenAI has a broad range of applications across various industries globally. Whilst marketing and sales leaders acted rapidly and are already using GenAI in their workflows, leaders in financial services, healthcare, insurance and education are more hesitant due to the legal and compliance complexities, compounded by the lack of transparency and regulation in GenAI. Businesses can use GenAI to improve decision-making, automate tedious, repetitive tasks, streamline workflow and create content for better customer engagement. 

As Nigeria navigates its way through the digital age, the role of AI is increasingly central and evolving. Nigeria is home to AI startups that are leveraging GenAI to solve local problems. Innovative solutions such as Ubenwainterprets infants’ needs and health by analysing the biomarkers in their cry sounds. Nigeria has a thriving digital ecosystem with 164 million active internet subscription, vibrant urban centers and 150+ million tech-savvy youths, giving some sociotechnical baseline support to GenAI outlook for the country.

AI is here to stay. We believe Nigerian businesses should explore GenAI to improve operational efficiency, drive innovation, automation and customer experience. Nonetheless, business leaders must ask and answer the below questions before launching any GenAI project:

1. How does a business start their GenAI journey responsibly? – GenAI Initiatives must align with principles of responsible AI. Develop a responsible roadmap, with emphasis on well-defined objectives, good feasibility studies, pilot projects, cross-functional team, and continuous learning. 

2. How should businesses organize for GenAI implementation and roll out? – The best organisation model to support AI initiative of any business is one that is agile and aligns with its long-term objectives. Nonetheless, the org model must create a room for an AI leadership team, an AI centre of excellence and cross functional collaboration.

3. What skills and resources do businesses need to leverage GenAI opportunities effectively? – Businesses require a diverse set of technical skills, adequate IT infrastructure and a culture that is conducive for GenAI innovation. Cross-functional collaboration and knowledge of AI regulatory compliance will help ensure responsible AI deployment.

4. What are the best practices and approaches to implementing/adopting GenAI for businesses? – Businesses should grasp GenAI’s potential, invest in infrastructure, collaborate with experts, and establish internal controls with regular audits for compliance.

5. How do businesses measure the value of GenAI and prioritise the multiple use cases? – Businesses can measure GenAI’s value using metrices such as cost savings, error rates and user feedback. Use case priority should be based on strategic alignment, feasibility, expected ROI, regulatory compliance, and ethical considerations.

6. How can businesses balance value creation, risk and cost when implementing GenAI projects? – They need to identify high-value GenAI use cases, start with small pilot projects, have a knowledgeable team, implement risk management and strong governance, engage stakeholders, use cloud solutions and AI platforms. 

7. How can a business leadership team and board members understand GenAI and drive its adoption within the company? – Business leaders should pursue continuous learning, leverage AI expert coaching, implement strong governance, and champion a culture of ethics and accountability to drive GenAI adoption.

8. How can businesses ensure that their supply chain, partners and major clients are aligned with their GenAI journey? – Communicate AI vision and strategy to all stakeholders, foster an environment of collaboration and o-er training sessions and resources to key partners and clients.

9. What are the inherent risks associated with GenAI and how do businesses manage them? – Risks such as data security, data biases, and ethical misuse can be managed with strong data protection, licensed datasets, audits, clear policies, ethical guidelines, and accountability frameworks. 

10. How will GenAI impact Sub-Saharan Africa region in the short and long-term? – Productivity boost in agriculture, healthcare, and education are expected in the short-term, but this requires workforce upskilling amid digital divide bottlenecks. Long term impacts include economic transformation and social re-orientation amongst others. 

As Nigeria’s digital economy continues to expand, the transformative potential of GenAI is becoming increasingly evident. According to Statista estimates, the market size of the GenAI sector in Nigeria is projected to reach $164.10 million in 2024, with an expected annual growth rate of 46.47% from 2024 to 2030. This impressive growth could revolutionise industries and enhance the quality of life for many Nigerians. To effectively harness this potential, business leaders in Nigeria must take some proactive measures.

A foundational understanding of GenAI and the current use cases are important, particularly in

the context of the broader economy, sector specifics and the maturity of the organisation. In addition, there are issues, dependencies and risks that are unique to any AI projects, and must be identified, and mitigated. Leaders must invest in accumulating requisite hard and soft skills in

the organisation, in addition to the knowledge of ethical and legal compliance peculiarities of GenAI usage or implementation. Once a business decision is made to explore GenAI, then best

practices must be followed including articulating a roadmap, investing in the right IT infrastructure, instituting regular audits and working with trusted AI Experts and Consulting firms to ensure best outcomes for the business.

We are confident that GenAI is here to stay and will shape the future of humanity in the years ahead. It may be instructive for business leaders to cautiously explore the benefits, expand investment in GenAI capabilities and position their organisations to optimise the opportunities that lie ahead, as the global AI landscape evolves