Andile Ngcaba, inq. chairperson.

Edge solutions provider inq. is ramping up its artificial intelligence (AI) drive as the company looks to open a Centre of Excellence in Zambia to develop new solutions for Africa.

The pan-Africa firm unveiled its AI plans this week, revealing it will launch centres of excellence across its markets to augment in-house innovation.

Botswana will host the innovation centre; Malawi the cyber security; and Zambia will host the AI Centre of Excellence.

On AI, this week inq. unveiled a batch of new AI products, with Andile Ngcaba, inq. chairperson, declaring: “The AI race has started, Africa should build its own.”

Ngcaba said the AI centre will provide African solutions and build talent. The centre will launch on August 30.

The businessman said at the launch, inq. will showcase GPT models and generative AI, solutions the company has been working on.

Inq.’s move into AI comes as the race to embrace the technology is underway worldwide.

The Global AI Index says the AI revolution will transform business, government and society – and this year it’s taken a huge leap forward.

The State of AI in Africa Report 2023, prepared by the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law at Strathmore University in Kenya, says Africa is embracing AI in ways unique to the continent and is showing no signs of slowing down.

In the case of inq., the company signalled its intention to be a dominant AI player unveiling its DocAI and VideoAI solutions.

“We are launching something that we have been building over the last 18 months; we are now ready,” said Ngcaba.

He added: “We have a serious problem of talent leaving the continent to work for big conglomerates, causing a brain drain on the continent. It’s about time, for us to survive, we have to build (talent) for ourselves. Talent is becoming a big issue,” said Ngcaba.