Dotun Adeoye
In the bustling offices of Lagos and the growing tech hubs of Abuja, a quiet revolution is taking place. For many Nigerians, “Artificial Intelligence” used to sound like a theme from a Hollywood movie. Today, it is a coworker. As AI integrates into the Nigerian economy, it isn’t just changing how we work; it is fundamentally redefining what our roles look like.
My experience across sectors in Nigeria shows that there is a desire to build capacity across industries. Executives are pledging more budget to AI knowledge across banking, fintech, legal, telecoms, energy, and other sectors. There’s an awareness that acquiring AI skills and upskilling the workforce is not a gamble but a top business risk and contingency management.
Nigeria’s relationship with AI is unique. Unlike markets that are purely importing software, Nigerian organisations have already gained significant experience across various sectors. This hands-on experience is enabling local companies to develop an AI skill set explicitly tailored to the Nigerian market, with an understanding of our unique infrastructure challenges, diverse languages, and consumer behaviours. We aren’t just using AI; we are building a version of it that works for us.
How key sectors are shifting
The impact of AI is most visible in key sectors of the Nigerian economy:
Financial Services & Fintech: The days of manual reconciliation and basic data entry are fading. In their place, we see the rise of AI risk architecture and fraud pattern analysis. Machine learning is protecting digital wallets and bank accounts in real time, focusing on complex problem-solving rather than repetitive paperwork.
Agriculture: Nigerian farmers are transitioning from traditional methods to precision tech. A modern agricultural lead in Nigeria might now function as a data-driven agronomist, using AI to analyse satellite imagery and soil sensors to predict crop yields. This shift moves the role from “labour-intensive” to “intelligence-driven”.
Customer Service & marketing: Generic scripts are being replaced by hyper-personalised experiences. Roles are shifting toward conversation designers, who train AI to interact with customers using local nuances and even Nigerian Pidgin, ensuring technology feels human and relatable.
The shift from routine to strategy
The common thread across these sectors is the replacement of routine tasks. AI is exceptionally good at the boring stuff: sorting files, basic calculations, and repetitive scheduling. This allows the Nigerian professional to lean into what we do best: creativity, high-level strategy, and complex negotiation.
By delegating the heavy lifting of data processing to AI, employees can focus on the “human” side of the business, building relationships, leading teams, and innovating new products.
Bottom line:
As we enter 2026, AI will replace some skills and create new ones. Professionals and executives who do not develop their AI capacity will be replaced by those who develop new AI skills and capacity.
Dotun Adeoye is a technology entrepreneur, AI governance leader, and co-founder of AI in Nigeria. He has over 30 years of global experience across Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa and advises organisations on AI transformation, governance, and digital growth.
Source: Businessday.ng | Read the Full Story…
