WHILE Silicon Valley chases ever more powerful artificial intelligence, Amini AI, a startup based in Nairobi, is focusing on a different mission — helping emerging economies build the digital foundations needed for AI to actually work.
With a lean team of 25 and $6 million in funding, Amini AI is using real-world challenges — from agriculture to water access — as its proving ground. The startup wants to be more than just another tech firm. Its ambition, says CEO Kate Kallot, is to become ‘the operating system for the Global South’.
‘There is a huge opportunity for emerging economies to focus on more applied AI innovation rather than fundamental research,’ Kallot told AFP at the VivaTech trade fair in Paris.
From crop insurance to climate resilience
Already, Amini AI is supporting projects across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, including a recent memorandum of understanding with Côte d’Ivoire. The company’s platform is helping slash crop insurance costs for African farmers and alert Moroccan dairy producers to climate-related risks to their water supply.
But these are just the beginning. ‘Data in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia — it’s still analogue, scattered, and unstructured,’ said Kallot. ‘There’s a lot of work to be done to digitise these economies before we can even talk about advanced AI.’
Other countries where Amini is helping build data systems include Barbados, India, Nepal, and Cambodia — all places where Kallot sees an urgent need to leapfrog from analogue to digital.
Huge potential, little infrastructure
While emerging markets are brimming with young, tech-savvy talent, they often lack the data infrastructure to harness it. In places like Kenya or the Philippines, Kallot notes, many have studied computer science and speak English — but few get to practise what they’ve learned.
That’s due to a structural imbalance. A 2024 report by Xalam Analytics found just 1 percent of the world’s data centre capacity is located in Africa — despite the continent hosting nearly 19 percent of the global population. Kallot told AFP that only 2 percent of African data is currently processed on the continent.
‘We’re still in a data-scarce environment,’ she said. ‘And until that’s fixed, most of the flashy new AI tools will remain out of reach for us.’
Local first, frugal by design
Kallot said the US-China battle over chips has had little direct effect on emerging markets for now. But she warned that nations like Kenya are already becoming a battleground for foreign infrastructure investments, with giants like Huawei and Microsoft racing to lock in strategic partnerships.
What’s urgently needed, she argues, is regional collaboration on infrastructure, such as shared data centres. ‘In the past, building critical infrastructure meant roads or hospitals,’ she said. ‘Now, it means building your data infrastructure.’
Failing to do so, she warns, risks handing over control of national knowledge systems. ‘Most AI models aren’t trained on African or Asian data. If we don’t store and process our own, we risk erasing our culture and knowledge.’
Ironically, the Global South’s tech limitations could give rise to more energy-efficient and sustainable innovations, she added. ‘We’ve got brilliant developers doing incredible things with limited resources. We just need to surface it and give them a platform.’
Credit: Africabriefing
