Over the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused Africa’s economy to shrink by 2.1 percent. In 2022, the region’s growth is expected to be less than in 2021. People in countries are worried about economic recovery and growth, and many are now realizing that a faster digital transformation is the best way to achieve this goal.
Forward-thinking leaders, policymakers, and businesses are turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is helping businesses grow as they did 10 years ago in less than a year in areas like e-commerce. AI is also making it easier for businesses to make more money in less time. By using new technologies like AI, countries can be more efficient, create jobs, be more competitive, and be more productive.
Nearly half of all businesses around the world (43%) increased their use of AI over the last year, according to a recent IBM report. Virtual assistants were used by businesses to automate tasks. Also, 80% of businesses said they planned to use some kind of automation software in the next year.
AI isn’t just being used more by businesses and organizations. AI is having a big impact on important industries, like farming. It can help farmers make better decisions based on data analytics and predictive insights that are based on data. This will lead to better agricultural outputs for small-scale farmers and big agribusinesses, which will help make the world a better place and improve food security.
There are five AI trends that Julia Carvalho, the General Manager of IBM Growth Markets, Africa said are going to be important for the agricultural industry and businesses in Africa in 2022, so she came up with a list of those trends.
The future of AI is a safe and reliable one, says Carvalho. AI can help farmers grow more food with fewer resources and be more profitable and sustainable. It can also help businesses save money by predicting IT problems better, which is a good thing.
Consumers, regulators, and shareholders are putting more pressure on businesses to make real changes in the way they use resources. It also puts a strain on supply chains and business operations because of climate change, she says. She said that in 2022, there will be more pressure on businesses to be more environmentally friendly, and AI will play a big part in that. AI will help businesses get better at measuring, collecting data, and accounting for carbon, as well as being more predictive and having a better supply chain. Read more; How to improve your digital front door with WebOps
Calvalho said that farmers in Africa have always had to deal with bad weather, whether it was drought, floods, or something else. She said that AI and IoT apps like FarmWeather will help small-scale farmers get the most out of their crops even when the weather isn’t predictable. These apps will provide risk forecasts and crop advice for a 3- to a 4-mile radius around a farm, and they will also let farmers share information, even if they don’t have the Internet or a smartphone.
According to her, in 2021, CIOs had to move their employees to other parts of the country, deal with new types of security issues, and figure out how to make sense of the huge amount of data that modern applications, monitoring tools, and digital channels produce. There is now a new field called AIOps because businesses used AI to predict IT problems better, and this has led to a whole new field. Read also; Mobile Industry Sets 6G Roadmap as 5G Gains Steam
In 2022, AIOps will allow IT, teams, to quickly and confidently solve problems faster than they could do so manually, freeing them from tedious, time-consuming tasks so they can focus on more important work for the company. AIOps will also help these IT teams look for patterns in data that could show when a problem might happen, which will help them avoid IT problems before they happen, she said.
Calvalho said that for AI to keep progressing in these areas, companies and organizations need to earn more trust from their customers. He said that the battle for trust takes place on many fronts, from making AI decisions understandable and explainable to giving customers the confidence that their personal data is safe from cyberattacks.
In the future, AI will play an even more important role in cybersecurity as companies and governments keep investing in it. “As they move toward a “zero trust” approach, AI will be even more important,” she said.
