AI a top strategic priority for African execs in 2025 – BCGAI a top strategic priority for African execs in 2025 – BCG

Artificial intelligence (AI) remains a top priority for business leaders in Africa and worldwide in 2025, with a strong focus on execution and reaping tangible results from AI initiatives.

In Africa, 72% of executives ranked AI and generative AI (GenAI) as a top-three strategic priority for 2025, compared to a 75% global average.

That's according to a new AI Radar report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) titled "From Potential to Profit: Closing the AI Impact Gap," which surveyed over 1,800 C-level executives across 19 markets and 12 industries, including execs in South Africa, Nigeria and Morocco.

(Source: BCG AI Radar report 2025)

When asked if the current reality of AI was living up to the hype, African CEOs had overall positive views.

Around 37% of those surveyed in South Africa, Nigeria and Morocco said AI is delivering significant value; 60% said AI is promising but has not delivered value yet; and only 3% said it was overhyped and providing no value.

(Source: BCG AI Radar report 2025)

Meanwhile, 86% of African companies are planning to increase tech investments in 2025, pushing for more disruptive usage of AI and prioritizing investments in higher-impact areas.

Half of the African companies plan to spend up to 10% of their tech investments specifically on AI, while 12% will spend more than 30% of the budget on AI.

Related:ATF 2024: Microsoft's Ravi Bhat on GenAI in Africa

More than 70% of African CEOs planned to spend up to $25 million on AI in 2025; 17% plan to invest between $26 million and $50 million; 8% plan to invest between $51 million and $100 million; and 4% plan to invest more than $100 million on AI in 2025.

(Source: BCG AI Radar report 2025)

"In my discussions with CEOs, it's clear they are prioritizing AI to drive productivity. Our latest survey uncovers a crucial challenge: while 75% of [global] executives rank AI as a top three strategic priority, only a quarter report meaningful value from their AI initiatives," said Christoph Schweizer, CEO of BCG.

"Leading AI adopters have cracked the code on how to achieve impact by focusing on a targeted set of AI initiatives, scaling them rapidly, transforming core processes, upskilling their teams, and systematically measuring operational and financial returns. Many companies have an immense opportunity to close the gap between their ambitions and reality," Schweizer added.

The robots are not coming for your job

In Africa, the report showed that only 6% of executives expect AI to lead to job losses; however, the figure was higher in South Africa, where 18% of execs said AI automation could reduce headcount.

On the global front, only 7% of executives anticipate AI automation will lead to an overall decrease in headcount.

Related:Orange bets on AI for network optimization, automation

Globally, 68% of executives said they anticipate maintaining their current workforce size, focusing on enhanced productivity and upskilling existing talent to meet AI demands, and 72% of African execs agreed.

Around 17% of executives globally (13% in Africa) expect AI to reshape the workforce by introducing new roles to replace redundant ones.

The skills challenge

Skills remain a challenge and fewer than one-third of companies worldwide have upskilled even a quarter of their workforce on AI/GenAI tools.

GCG said this was an improvement from last year, "but still far from the level needed to help employees feel secure in adapting to a technology often perceived as a threat to jobs."

Asia-Pacific and Africa were leading when it came to AI/GenAI upskilling, with 34% of Asia-Pacific companies and 31% of African companies saying they had trained more than 25% of their workforce on AI/GenAI tools, while other regions lagged further behind.

(Source: BCG AI Radar report 2025)

The survey found that more than two-thirds of global companies struggle when it comes to hiring AI talent, upskilling their workforces, and driving cultural and organizational change.

In Africa, 68% indicated challenges hiring AI talent and upskilling their existing workforce.

Related:SA enterprises actively hiring for GenAI roles - IBM

"Successful leaders adopt the 10-20-70 framework to unlock AI's business potential, allocating 70% of their efforts to transforming people, processes, and culture; 20% to data and technology; and just 10% to algorithms," said Sylvain Duranton, global leader of BCG X, the firm's tech unit.

"However, two-thirds of companies [globally] face significant challenges in reimagining workflows, driving cultural change, recruiting talent, and upskilling their workforce. Ensuring the success of AI initiatives requires disciplined execution, a relentless focus on value creation, and a workforce ready to adapt and thrive in a rapidly evolving environment," Duranton added.

Meanwhile, 35% of African companies surveyed are failing to define and monitor any financial key performance indicators (KPIs) related to AI value creation; and 62% of these companies lack maturity in effective AI organizational change management.

Autonomous agents

The rise of "autonomous agents" will be a key consideration in AI transformation worldwide in 2025, BCG said.

Agents are autonomous AI systems that achieve goals by using tools, analyzing data, and working across systems – with minimal human input.

While still in the early days of deployment, 67% of global executives are considering autonomous agents as part of their AI transformation.

At least 65% of African companies surveyed have shown optimism about the role of AI agents moving into 2025, either exploring AI agents or viewing them as playing a central or complementing role in their AI transformation.

African executives see talent and AI as complementary: 19% see AI taking the lead, but humans keeping oversight; 66% see AI and humans collaborating with complementary roles; and 15% are prioritizing human talent and using AI only when necessary.  

Risks to navigate

African executives identified data privacy and security (64%); regulatory challenges and compliance (46%); and lack of control or understanding of AI decisions (37%) as the top three AI risks to navigate this year.

Cybersecurity is a critical concern, with 83% of African executives acknowledging that their AI cybersecurity measurements require further improvements. 

The report also revealed that 60% of African companies surveyed cited regulations as a factor in their AI adoption pace.

This is the highest across the globe, followed by North America (58%), Europe (56%), the Middle East (54%), APAC (52%) and South America (45%).

The rising environmental impact of AI

The report found that companies across Africa, and globally, are not doing enough to mitigate the environmental impact of AI.

The report shows that 73% of companies surveyed on the continent do not prioritize energy efficient AI solutions as part of their vendor selection.

This is against a global average of 78%, with other regions doing much less: South America at 86%, North America at 83%, the Middle East at 80%, Europe at 77% and Asia-Pacific at 75%.

(Source: BCG AI Radar report 2025)