Africa must scale the right AI to unlock growth, not just efficiency: PwC AI performance findings
- Scale gap: 82% of organisations are running AI pilots, but few have scaled enterprise-wide adoption
- Investment gap: Average investment is 2% of revenue vs. 5% among global leaders; only 32% believe investment is sufficient
- Growth vs efficiency: AI in Africa is focused on cost savings, while global leaders prioritise growth and reinvention
- Industry convergence: Limited cross-sector innovation constrains new value creation
- Workforce advantage: 64% of workers are already using AI, signalling strong adoption potential
Lagos, 18 May 2026 – Organisations across Africa are demonstrating strong intent in adopting artificial intelligence (AI) but are falling behind global leaders in translating that ambition into measurable returns. PwC’s latest AI performance research shows widespread experimentation, yet only moderate progress in scaling AI and using it to drive growth and reinvention.
“Africa’s challenge is both adopting AI at scale and implementing it fast enough to remain competitive. While more than 82% of organisations are running AI pilots, this is not yet translating into enterprise-wide impact. The organisations that will win are not those running the most pilots, but those that scale the right AI to transform how they create value.”
Many organisations continue to treat AI as a series of isolated experiments. While this approach builds capability, it does not deliver transformation. Without scale, AI remains incremental rather than a driver of sustained value creation.
Expanding AI beyond efficiency
In Africa, early AI benefits are concentrated on cost reduction and productivity gains. Globally, however, leading organisations are applying AI to create new revenue streams, redesign value chains, and reposition their businesses for growth.
“Focusing AI only on efficiency is a narrowing strategy. The real opportunity lies in using AI to unlock growth, expand into underserved markets, and create entirely new business models.”
Unlocking value through convergence
Industry convergence remains one of Africa’s most underutilised AI opportunities. Compared to global leaders, organisations in the region are less likely to collaborate across sectors to unlock new value pools.
“Africa’s structural complexity—fragmented markets, infrastructure gaps, and a growing youth population—positions it well for AI-enabled convergence, if organisations design for ecosystems rather than sectors.”
Many of Africa’s most pressing challenges—such as financial inclusion, energy access, and healthcare—are inherently cross-sector. AI enables organisations to address these ecosystem challenges, yet adoption of this approach remains limited.
Foundations gap constrains scaling
Scaling AI requires strong foundations, including trusted data, modern technology architecture, and clear governance frameworks.
Mark Allderman, Africa Cloud and Digital Leader, PwC South Africa, highlights that without these elements, organisations struggle to move beyond experimentation and realise consistent returns. Gaps in investment, data modernisation, cloud adoption, and access to AI talent continue to constrain progress.
Only 32% of organisations believe their AI investment is sufficient, underscoring the need for more focused and intentional investment.
Workforce readiness: a competitive advantage
A key strength for Africa is its workforce readiness. PwC’s research shows that 64% of workers are already using AI in their roles, reflecting strong openness to adoption.
“The workforce is ahead of the organisation in many cases. Employees are ready to use AI, but leaders are still building trust in AI-driven decisions. Bridging that gap is critical to scaling adoption.”
Turning ambition into impact
While ambition is strong, it must be matched with decisive action. Organisations need to prioritise growth-oriented use cases, focus investment on high-value opportunities, and build the foundations required to scale AI effectively.
They must also recognise the advantage already within their organisations. Workforce openness to AI presents a powerful accelerant, but requires investment in skills, trust, and decision-making frameworks to translate into real impact. At the same time, organisations will need to look beyond traditional industry boundaries and use AI to solve cross-sector challenges and unlock new value pools.
“Turning AI ambition into measurable impact requires focus and discipline. Leaders must invest with intent, prioritise growth, and create the conditions for AI to scale—combining strong foundations with workforce readiness and ecosystem thinking”
A turning point for AI-driven growth
Africa stands at a critical inflection point in its AI journey. The intent, workforce readiness, and early adoption are in place. However, without decisive execution, the gap between Africa and global AI leaders risks widening.
The strategic choice is clear: use AI to defend today’s margins, or to shape tomorrow’s markets. The organisations that act decisively now will define the next phase of growth across the continent.
Research methodology
PwC’s AI performance study gathered survey responses from 1,217 senior executives—all director-level or above—primarily from publicly listed companies (91% of the sample) with US$1 billion or more in revenue (76% of the sample) in 25 sectors across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America, and South America. Fieldwork was conducted in October and November 2025.
We analysed the companies’ AI-driven performance, defined as the sector adjusted proportion of revenue and efficiency/cost gains attributable to AI. We then tested the effect of 60 areas of management and investment practice on AI-driven performance. We grouped these practices into nine factors across two categories: AI foundations (the capabilities that make AI reliable and scalable) and AI use (how broadly, deeply, and sophisticatedly AI is applied, and whether it is pointed at growth opportunities).
These categories make up our AI fitness index— their sum equates to the AI fitness index score. The AI fitness index is positively and significantly linked to AI-driven performance, making it a robust basis for analysis. This makes it meaningful to compare AI leaders with other companies across the index’s underlying factors to identify the management practices that set the leaders apart.
Percentages shown in charts may not add up to 100% due to rounding, multi select response formats, and the exclusion of certain categories (e.g. “Other,” “Not applicable,” “Don’t know”).
This research and thought leadership was undertaken by PwC Global Thought Leadership, which develops bold, trusted, actionable insights through proprietary research.
Explore the full report here
Decoding ROI from AI in Africa
