Africa has an AI skills problem that is forcing a youth empowerment rethink

Daily Maverick

a day ago

AI is evolving from generative tools to autonomous agents, now African businesses face skills shortages as the tech giants shift focus from traditional coding bootcamps to 'AI readiness' – but are we preparing our youth for the right future?
There was a nightmare scenario revealed in SAP's latest Africa AI Skills Readiness Revealed report: the technology goalposts have shifted, once again, leaving the continent caught between digital transformation ambitions and the harsh reality of skills shortages that are already undermining business operations.
'A hundred percent of the African organisations that we surveyed said that they saw an increase in demand for AI skills in 2025, and just around 50% of that said they saw a significant increase in the demand for those AI skills,' explains Nazia Pillay, interim managing director for Southern Africa at SAP.
The impact isn't theoretical – it's immediate and painful. Nearly 90% of survey responses report that AI skills shortages are already causing 'delays in implementations, failed innovation initiatives, an inability to take on new work, and loss of clients.'
For South African companies, the situation is particularly worrying – 98% say lacking AI skills undermines their innovation capabilities, making them more vulnerable to competitive disadvantage.
The agentic age changes everything
But even as organisations scramble to address these shortages, the AI landscape is rapidly shifting beyond the generative AI tools that dominated 2023 and 2024 keynotes, toward 'agentic AI' – autonomous systems that can plan, act, and adapt independently.
'Copilot was like version one of AI for enterprises with the generative stuff it's moved beyond, so you'll see everyone talks about agents – and the secret of agents is that it's autonomous,' explains Robin Fisher, head of EMEA growth markets at Salesforce, describing how these systems represent a fundamental departure from reactive AI tools toward proactive, goal-directed agents.
This shift is forcing a complete rethink of what 'AI readiness skills' even are. The traditional focus on coding – the bread and butter of coding academies across Africa that spawned under the weight of the last future-focused skills wave – is giving way to something far more nuanced.
Ursula Fear, Salesforce's senior talent programme manager, warns that '39% of all of our core skills, the global workforce core skills, are to be changed by 2030'. She now says we should all be 'lifelong learners', dedicating 'a minimum of about 10 hours a week' to staying relevant.
The skills that matter now extend far beyond 'ones and zeros' coding. Fisher suggests that future AI readiness includes 'the ability to maybe even go back to some of those things like psychology or linguistics because it's around making agents human' – skills crucial for ensuring AI agents operate with empathy and effective communication.
The new rules of AI readiness
This evolution is reshaping how major tech companies approach youth empowerment in Africa. Both Salesforce and its upstart Indian competitor Zoho are moving away from partnerships with coding bootcamps toward more holistic AI readiness programmes.
Salesforce has launched rural interventions, including a pilot partnership with Absa in what Fear describes as a 'tier three town' (she's talking about Dundee), where they discovered qualified individuals – including computer science graduates and marine biologists – who had returned home due to a lack of urban job opportunities. The goal is building 'digital hubs in tier three towns' that can scale Salesforce solutions to businesses as small as a local 'meat producer'.
'We 100% believe that the only way that we are going to be able to solve this problem is through collaboration,' Fear continues, describing partnerships with workforce development organisations like Collective X that focus on 'work-integrated learning – the application of it' rather than just certifications.
Zoho, meanwhile, is implementing what it calls 'transnational localism' – a philosophy that blends global reach with local engagement. The company is still riding the learn to code rollercoaster with Code Intelligence in Khayelitsha and Bench Bites for 'train the trainer programmes,' bringing students to their Cape Town offices and hiring directly from these programmes.
But even the low-cost CRM hero acknowledges the fundamental shift under way. 'We're trying to not hire any more developers' internally, explains Hyther Nizam, president of Zoho Middle East and Africa, instead aiming to 'repurpose them to some other things' while equipping existing developers with AI tools like copilots.
Wake-up call for the African dream
For South Africa specifically, these shifts come against a backdrop of sobering economic realities. With youth unemployment at 62%, Andrew Bourne, regional manager for Zoho Southern Africa, stresses the critical need for young South Africans to 'think global' because 'we actually won't have enough jobs in South Africa for the unemployed'.
This global perspective is reflected in Zoho's pricing strategy, which is basically offering 'first world technology at a third world price' with 25% subsidised pricing for the rand, maintained consistently for five years.
Their new Zoho Solo mobile only app, designed for solopreneurs at R99 a month, aims to build 'digital skills literacy' among one-person businesses.
The challenge isn't just about individual skills development, it's about systemic change. Despite 94% of African organisations now offering IT training monthly (up from 74% previously), budget allocation for training has actually decreased from 14% to 7% of IT and HR budgets, with no organisation spending more than 10%.
'We need to allocate a budget for upskilling our existing workforce,' Pillay insists, warning organisations to 'prepare for an AI-related skills gap in 2025' and 'understand the impact that a lack of skills will have on your business, your employees, and your customers.'
What South Africa's AI skills crunch means for you
If you're a young job seeker, a business owner, or just trying to future-proof your career, this isn't some distant tech debate; it's your next paycheque.
AI isn't optional any more. Whether you're in finance, farming, or fashion, businesses are under pressure to adopt AI, but there's a huge shortage of local talent.
Your CV needs more than just coding. AI readiness is about more than programming. Skills in communication, business strategy, ethics, and even psychology are now just as valuable.
Training is free, if you know where to look. Companies like Salesforce and Zoho are offering open-access training, internships, and rural digital hubs.
Jobs aren't disappearing, they're shifting. Data entry might be automated, but someone still needs to guide the agents. AI is a tool, not a takeover. The more you understand it, the more irreplaceable you become.
Think beyond our borders. With SA's youth unemployment pushing 60%, the real opportunity might be global. Local startups and students are already getting remote gigs with international firms. The internet doesn't care about your postcode.
Bottom line: If you wait for government policy to catch up, you'll be left behind. Start skilling up now; even ten hours a week can change your trajectory.
Disproving the replacement theory
Both CRM companies are quick to reject the narrative that AI will simply replace human workers, even though they're selling agentic AI.
'At no point is it creating unemployment,' Fisher argues. 'In the same way, agents are going to make certain things probably redundant, data capture, data analysis, those jobs will grow, right? Because AI can do the data analysis, but then it's going to create new jobs that are more powerful because you have context.'
Nizam says Zoho's internal experience suggests a more measured reality: AI provides '30% to 40%' productivity improvement, not the '5x to 10x' often promised, partly because 'reading the AI-generated code is a nightmare.'
The reality is that the stakes couldn't be higher – 60% of African organisations view AI skills as critical to their success, but 100% expect to face skills gaps. The companies getting it right are those recognising that in an agentic AI world, the most valuable skill might not be writing code, but understanding how to make machines work better with humans. DM