SAP today launched its latest thought-leadership study, Africa’s AI Skills Readiness Revealed, uncovering how companies in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa are reinventing their talent strategies for the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
“The data is clear: African companies see AI skills as mission-critical,” said Nazia Pillay, Interim Managing Director for South Africa at SAP. “Six in ten executives describe AI skills as extremely important to their success, yet 90 percent of firms already report costly consequences from delayed projects to abandoned innovation because the right talent isn’t available.”
Key Findings
- 100% of organisations expect demand for AI skills to rise in 2025. They all anticipate an AI-related skills gap this year.
- 85% list AI development expertise and 83% list Generative AI capabilities among their top hiring priorities.
- 86% rate cybersecurity as the single most-wanted technical skill. This is a jump from 63 percent in SAP’s 2023 study mirroring the rapid expansion of Africa’s digital economy.
- 80% now cite supporting hybrid or remote work requests as their leading talent challenge. They have dramatically rose from 32 percent two years ago.
- Affordability has overtaken purely technical credentials as the No. 1 hiring attribute, with adaptability a close second.
- 94% offer formal IT training at least monthly. Yet the proportion of IT/HR budgets devoted to skills development has fallen since 2023.
“Our last report, published shortly after the pandemic, spotlighted remote-work pressures on talent pools,” Pillay added. “Today the landscape is transformed by AI. While two-thirds of African organisations are rolling out AI-focused upskilling programmes, budget constraints threaten to leave late movers behind.”
Download the SAP Study ‘Africa’s AI Skills Readiness Revealed’ here.
