The latest search trends released by Google have revealed that Nigeria recorded the sixth-highest search interest in AI in Africa and ranks 25th in the world.
According to the report, searches for AI have more than doubled this year, increasing by 130% compared with the same period last year.
It added that searches in Nigeria for “what is AI” also increased by 30%, while searches for “how to use AI” increased by 40%.
Why Nigerians are searching for AI
The Google search trends report further revealed that Nigerians are looking to use AI to build their careers and creativity. This was reflected in trending searches such as “create a logo with AI”, “create CV with AI”, “design website with AI”, “design a flyer with AI” and “create slides with AI” – all of which were ‘breakout’ searches in 2024, growing over 5,000% in interest since this time last year.
“Nigerians are also interested in learning more about AI and how best to use it. Searches for “AI and courses” have increased by 50% – while top questions include “is AI hard to learn”, “how to learn AI” and “how to access and learn about AI”. Search interest in AI and business more than doubled (+110%), while searches for AI and jobs more than septupled (+640%),” Google disclosed.
Interest in cybersecurity and AI
The report also showed that Search interest in cybersecurity and AI also nearly doubled across Nigeria, increasing by over 80%, while people showed a clear interest in the future of AI for science.
It added that searches for AI and healthcare more than doubled (+140%), while searches for AI and medicine increased by 50% and searches for AI and STEM and AI and hospitals both increased by 60%.
Commenting on the trends, West Africa Director at Google, Olumide Balogun, said:
“AI has the potential to create opportunities – from the extraordinary to the everyday – for everyone: bringing new waves of innovation, social and economic progress. So it’s no surprise that the people of Nigeria are already looking to make the most of this transformational technology – finding ways for it to boost their career, creativity, and society.”
What you should know
Nigerians’ growing interest in AI also aligns with the government’s moves to deepen the country’s capacity in this technology.
Since he assumed office, the current Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, has been pushing AI as one of the priorities of the government’s ICT agenda.
- From actively supporting AI startups to the empowerment of 45 AI innovators with N5 million each under its AI Research Scheme, Nigeria has never been short of AI initiatives in the past one year.
- At some point, Tijani said the Ministry in its bid to make Nigeria a global leader in AI, had identified over 6,000 AI researchers who are of Nigerian descent and based in several parts of the world.
- All these efforts culminated in the launch of Nigeria’s first Multilingual Large Language Model (LLM) at the end of a 4-day AI workshop held in Abuja in April this year.
- According to the Communications Minister, the AI tool was launched through a partnership between a Nigerian AI company, Awarritech, a global tech company, DataDotOrg, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and the National Centre for AI and Robotics (NCAIR).
