• Contact Us
  • About Us
Saturday, May 31, 2025
  • Login
MetroBusinessNews
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • News
  • Companies and Markets
  • Energy
  • Sports
  • Real Estate
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • News
  • Companies and Markets
  • Energy
  • Sports
  • Real Estate
No Result
View All Result
MetroBusinessNews
No Result
View All Result
ADVERTISEMENT
Home English News Releases

Africa’s AI skills landscape revealed in new SAP report

metro by metro
May 15, 2025
in English News Releases, Technology, Uncategorized
0
0
SHARES
0
VIEWS

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 15th May 2025-/African Media Agency(AMA)/- SAP today released a new report, ‘Africa’s AI Skills Readiness Revealed’, which provides research into how African companies are transforming their skills development efforts to meet the demands of the Age of Artificial Intelligence.

Nazia Pillay, Interim Managing Director for South Africa at SAP, says: “The data is clear: African companies expect the demand for AI skills to increase this year, with six in ten saying AI skills are ‘extremely important’ to their success. The business impact of a lack of AI skills availability is already evident, with 90% of companies in our research citing negative impacts that include project delays, failed innovation initiatives, and an inability to take on new work.”

Read Also

2025 Brand Africa 100 | Ethiopia’s Best Brands

Leading brands showcase SAP-fuelled AI, cloud innovation at Sapphire 2025

Peter Obi Condems High Rate Of Killings In Kogi, Benue, Taraba

SAP’s latest report follows an earlier tech skills report released in 2023 which unveiled specific challenges and opportunities for African organisations seeking greater tech skills availability.

“Our first report was conducted just as we exited the worst of the pandemic impact. At the time, companies were facing several challenges with attracting, retaining and upskilling suitable qualified tech workers, especially in the wake of the rise of remote and hybrid work environments. This year, the business landscape has been transformed by the impact of AI technologies and the search for relevant skills.”

The research was conducted at the end of 2024 among both mid-size and enterprise-level companies in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

Universal need for AI skills

Every organisation that was surveyed as part of the research said they expect the demand for AI skills to increase in 2025. All companies also expected to experience some AI-related skills gap this year. “Skills related to AI are hugely in-demand among African organisations, with 85% saying AI development skills are a priority, and 83% prioritising Generative AI skills. To help close the AI skills gap, two-thirds of organisations are introducing career development initiatives with AI specialisation to upskill or reskill employees.”

Overall, the most in-demand tech skill among African organisations is cybersecurity. “Eighty-six percent of companies said cybersecurity skills were important to them, a significant increase over the 63% that said the same in our previous research. The growing importance of cybersecurity may be partly explained by the rapid growth of Africa’s digital economy and the millions of citizens that are being brought into the digital fold through public and private sector initiatives.”

Changing workplace expectations

There are far-reaching changes in the expectations of both employers and employees regarding skills and the workplace compared to a few years ago. “Eight in ten African organisations said supporting skilled employees’ requests for hybrid or remote work is their top skills-related challenge this year, a significant increase from only 32% who said the same in our previous survey.?

The non-technical attributes that African organisations look for in potential hires have also evolved. “In 2023, technical skills and industry-specific skills were the top attributes. Affordability was somewhere near the bottom, with less than a third of organisations saying they consider it during the hiring process. This year, affordability is the number one candidate attribute for African organisations, with adaptability a close second.”

Adaptability is essential in light of the need for employees to be upskilled or reskilled with AI skills. “Reskilling is a top skills-related priority for 38% of companies this year, with 48% saying the same of upskilling employees. Unsurprisingly, two-thirds of companies said helping employees understand why reskilling is necessary is one of the top challenges this year.”

Training, skills development in the spotlight

Pillay says companies are stepping up their IT training and skills development efforts to help meet the demand for skills. “Ninety-four percent of African organisations offer training and skills development to employees at least monthly, an increase from 74% in our last survey. The number of companies offering training opportunities to employees at any time also increased from 28% in our last survey to 37% this year.”

Surprisingly, the portion of companies’ IT or HR budgets allocated to skills-related initiatives has declined since 2023. “The drop in budget allocation for skills development requires an urgent rethink. Organisations that don’t invest in appropriate skills now may find they are unable to leverage new innovations and emerging technologies, leaving them trailing their more skills-enable competitors.”

SAP’s ‘Africa’s AI Skills Readiness Revealed’ report is now available and can be downloaded here.

Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of SAP Africa.

Visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP at @SAPNews.

About SAP

As a global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, SAP (NYSE:SAP) stands at the nexus of business and technology. For over 50 years, organizations have trusted SAP to bring out their best by uniting business-critical operations spanning finance, procurement, HR, supply chain, and customer experience. For more information, visit  www.sap.com.

Note to editors:

To preview and download broadcast-standard stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit www.sap.com/photos. On this platform, you can find high resolution material for your media channels.

For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:

Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24

United States Only: 1 (800) 872-1SAP (1-800-872-1727)

For more information, press only:

James Wilson, Head of Communications Africa – SAP james.wilson03@sap.com

Palesa Mokitle p.mokitle@bdcomms.co.za

SAP Press Room; press@sap.com

Please consider our privacy policy. If you received this press release in your e-mail and you wish to unsubscribe to our mailing list please contact press@sap.com and write Unsubscribe in the subject line.

The post Africa’s AI skills landscape revealed in new SAP report appeared first on African Media Agency.

Source : African Media Agency (AMA)

Tags: English News ReleasesTechnology
Previous Post

Worries Over Fiscal Transparency, Revenue Management As World Bank Says NNPCL Failed To Remit N500bn In 2024

Next Post

HoR Bill To ‘Jail Eligible Nigerians Who Fail To Vote’ Passes Second Reading, As Citizens React

Related Posts

Business

2025 Brand Africa 100 | Ethiopia’s Best Brands

May 30, 2025
English News Releases

Leading brands showcase SAP-fuelled AI, cloud innovation at Sapphire 2025

May 28, 2025
Peter Obi Condems High Rate Of Killings In Kogi, Benue, Taraba
Uncategorized

Peter Obi Condems High Rate Of Killings In Kogi, Benue, Taraba

May 28, 2025
Business

Africa.com Announces Two Livestream Events: Inspiring Progress with Bill Gates and Africa in Motion

May 28, 2025
Next Post
Opposition Federal Lawmakers Form Alliance To Counter ‘Excesses’ Of Ruling APC At 10th Assembly

HoR Bill To 'Jail Eligible Nigerians Who Fail To Vote' Passes Second Reading, As Citizens React

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

20 Kano Athletes, Officials Die In Road Accident While Returning From Sports Festival In Ogun

20 Kano Athletes, Officials Die In Road Accident While Returning From Sports Festival In Ogun

May 31, 2025
Ex-CBN Governor Emefiele Arrives Lagos Court For Arraignment

Forfeiture Order; EFCC Sues Emefiele In Fresh Eight-Count Charges

May 31, 2025
Saudis say to take “big hit” on oil output for OPEC deal, Iran can freeze

OPEC+ Announces Increase In July Oil Output

May 31, 2025
MetroBusinessNews

© 2022 Metro Business News

Navigate Site

  • Contact Us
  • About Us

Follow Us

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • News
  • Companies and Markets
  • Energy
  • Sports
  • Real Estate

© 2022 Metro Business News

Go to mobile version