3.1 Key Definition The following two criteria AI stakeholders and AI readiness index in Africa have been deployed in the study to achieve the results. 3.1.1 AI Stakeholders By definition, AI Stakeholder refers to an in- dividual, group of people, or company that has invested in AI, either in the form of di- rect support for research and development or a vested interest in the success of the AI, or who is affected by or has an interest in AI and its social impact initiative(s) (Sinde et al. 2023; “AI for Good: Global Impact” 2020; Hoffman et al. 2023). They may include users, community members, partners, funders, in- vestors, policymakers, regulators, research- ers, and others (Arthur Gwagwa et al. 2021b; Truby 2020). Based on the literature, Africa’s tech boom is often linked to fintech, but the largest tech acquisition in the continent during the last years was AI-focused. Indeed, AI technology is growing across Africa, with over 2,400 companies specializing in AI, 41% 03 Key Definitions and Methodology
of which are startups. Estimates indicate that the technology could contribute $1.2 billion to the continent’s GDP by 2030 if it could only capture 10% of the fast-growing global AI market (Gadzala 2018; Rogerson et al. 2022; Hoffman et al. 2023). This configuration has contributed to the emergence of an AI eco- system in Africa. Most of this progress can be found among AI-related startups, academic, Government, corporate, social, and incuba- tors/accelerator institutions. Therefore, for the nature of this study, the stakeholders have been categorized into firms, academia, and government. Additionally, these stake- holders are in different stages for AI adop- tion, which include beginners (initial stage), experimenters (intermediate stage), and in- novators (final stage) as briefly described in Figure 1. However, despite their stages, each of them contributes to the understanding of the status of AI in the country. Therefore, this study has considered all stakeholders in all three stages of AI adoption to understand the status of AI at a country level and eventu- ally at the African continent level.
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