The use of artificial intelligence (AI) can deliver extraordinary productivity and development gains for African economies and firms, streamline and scale government service delivery, and help African businesses attract foreign investment. Recognizing this, African ministers in the information, communications, and technology (ICT) sector endorsed the landmark Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy and African Digital Compact in June 2024. Also several African governments have issued AI strategies.

However, for AI to promote economic growth and improve lives in Africa, it needs to be adopted across sectors and population segments. Africans are overall upbeat about AI – in a recent survey, 95 percent of Nigerians and 76 percent of South Africans believe AI will benefit them. However, according to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) AI Preparedness Index, Africans’ AI skills are among the lowest in the world. LinkedIn data of mid-2025 suggests that only 0.3 percent of South Africans have substantial AI skills. 

 

African countries’ AI strategies as well as the Continental AI Strategy already address the importance of AI skilling at schools, universities, and workplaces. Google’s 2024 report AI Sprinters also underscores the pivotal role of AI skilling across African firms, agencies, and economies. According to AI Sprinters, AI-ready workforces should have three competency levels: AI Learners, who have basic AI literacy; AI Implementers, who use and adapt AI tools at work; and AI Innovators, who can use deep technical expertise to help shape how the technology evolves.

This AI Skilling Blueprint builds on AI Sprinters and proposes a practical blueprint for African governments to develop and implement a comprehensive, nation-wide AI skilling plan. The objective is to ensure that all citizens are equipped with the necessary training to participate in and benefit from the AI-driven economy. To meet this goal, this Blueprint prescribes actions to skill specific population segments at the three competency levels identified in AI Sprinters:
 

• AI Learners, including the general population and primary and secondary school students.
   

• AI Implementers, including micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), professionals, private sector workforces, public sector workforces including policymakers and educators.
   

• AI Innovators, including entrepreneurs, developers, and researchers.

This Blueprint also proposes Africa’s national AI skilling plans follow several principles, such as:
 

• Integrating AI ethics, responsible use of AI, and international standards into all AI skilling initiatives.
   

• Ensuring AI skilling is inclusive and the needs of underserved groups, such as persons with disabilities, are built into AI skilling policies and programs.
   

• Translating AI skilling into effective use of AI, by pairing skilling with broader change management and digital transformation at schools, workplaces, and government agencies.

National AI skilling plans need to be adopted at the highest levels of government: heads of state need to adopt national AI skilling plans and involve all relevant ministries. 

Governments will also need to work together. At the continental level, this Blueprint calls for the African Union (AU) and regional economic communities (RECs) to promote AI skilling in Africa through guiding member states on their AI skilling plans, sharing best skilling practices, pooling resources across member states for AI skilling, creating regional AI credentialing systems, and measuring both AI proficiency and the effectiveness of AI skilling across different countries and demographic groups.
 

In their AI skilling work, African governments have a great opportunity to partner with the private sector, both to identify African businesses’ needs for AI skills, and to skill Africans to use AI. Google has already made numerous commitments for AI skilling in Africa.

In 2025, Google announced $37 million in cumulative contributions toward AI skilling and research in Africa, including an AI Community Center in Accra that will host technical workshops, research exchanges, and community events for students, developers, entrepreneurs, artists, and civil society to explore how AI can respond to African needs. In 2024, Google made a $5.8 million commitment to accelerate AI skills initiatives across sub-Saharan Africa, and a $15 million contribution to boost AI skilling across the Middle East and North Africa. Google has also rolled out Gemini learning features and Guided Learning to support university students across Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, free of charge for one year.
 

Google has also championed the AI-first accelerator Google for Startups in Africa. The Google Hustle Academy offers a free virtual bootcamp designed to empower African MSMEs to integrate AI into their business strategy, financial management, digital marketing, and leadership development.
 

AI is a breakthrough opportunity for Africa to attain a new development frontier where all Africans can improve their incomes and lives. Seizing this opportunity takes persistent and comprehensive AI skilling work by African governments. This Blueprint aims to catalyze and guide such work.