What's next for African Startups in AI?

Since 2022, we've witnessed AI adoption by startups explode from a slow climb to a meteoric rise.

Early on, it was a modest increase reported by Kruze consulting, from 6% to 13%, just a gentle nudge on the accelerator.

Then 2023 hit, and suddenly the numbers shot from 13% in January to a staggering 66% by December 2023 and almost 70% at May 2024.

Now, here we are in 2025, with adoption solidly around 85% and counting. AI isn't just an add-on, it has evolved from a nice-to-have tool to a central pillar of innovation.

And just when you thought it couldn't get any more exciting, Y Combinator is doubling down with its "Request for Startups" list. They released a brand new set of AI-focused ideas just three months after the last one, talk about urgency!

This is a bold signal: there are endless possibilities with AI. And for African startups and investors, it's like our clarion call to action.

In the past three years, over $400B has been poured into AI/ML startups with more than 50% of the market dominated by the US and most recently, we saw stirring reactions across the US stock market to China's DeepSeek.

The potential for Africa in this disruption is enormous but not lacking in challenges especially in funding and scalability.

Yet the global surge of investments in this sector shows the stakes are higher than ever.

The signal here is an opportunity for more open-source collaboration, shared knowledge, and leapfrogging traditional barriers.