Africa Can Leapfrog Into The AI Era

As artificial intelligence adoption accelerates globally, African enterprises have a unique opportunity to bypass legacy technology limitations and position themselves at the forefront of next-generation innovation.

That is according to Sayantan Dev, Global Head of the Software Solutions Group at Redington, who believes Africa’s relatively young digital infrastructure could become an advantage rather than a weakness in the AI era.

Speaking to CIO Africa during AI Everything x GITEX Kenya, Dev said the continent’s innovation track record, growing startup ecosystem, and expanding digital ambitions position it strongly for AI-driven growth over the next several years.

“There is an advantage and disadvantage of not having a legacy,” Dev said. “The disadvantage is you need to build infrastructure from the ground up, but the advantage is that you can leapfrog into advanced technologies.”

Dev leads Redington’s global Software Solutions Group, the division responsible for the company’s software, cloud, and cybersecurity businesses. His role places him at the center of the distributor’s transformation from a traditional hardware-focused business into a broader digital solutions and AI ecosystem player.

According to Dev, Redington’s evolution mirrors the broader transformation happening across the global technology industry.

“Redington started as a pure-play supply chain distributor,” he explained. “We distributed everything from endpoint devices and mobile phones to servers, storage, and networking.”

Over time, however, the company expanded into value-added distribution, incorporating software, cloud, cybersecurity, operational technology (OT) security, and most recently, artificial intelligence solutions into its portfolio.

“This has been the evolutionary journey of the distribution industry and the evolution of the industry itself,” Dev said.

He noted that Africa is often underestimated when it comes to technology innovation despite several countries already demonstrating strong digital transformation capabilities.

“East Africa has been a good home ground for innovation for many years, particularly in fintech,” he said, citing Kenya’s M-Pesa mobile money platform as an example of early African digital innovation. “A lot of people do not realize the true potential of Africa.”

According to Dev, AI presents African markets with an opportunity to accelerate digital maturity faster than more established economies constrained by legacy infrastructure.

“AI is a truly disruptive technology, but it will also help nations leapfrog into advanced technology,” he said. “It depends on how governments make technology available and amenable to use.”

While enthusiasm around AI continues growing, Dev acknowledged that many organizations globally are still struggling to move beyond pilot projects and experimentation into meaningful business implementation.

However, he noted that enterprises are increasingly recognizing that AI adoption is becoming a competitive necessity.

“Everybody is under pressure to adopt AI fast enough to become more competitive,” he said. “How well you adapt to the new technology will be an important determinant of your competitive advantage going ahead.”

To support enterprises navigating the shift, Redington recently launched an “AI Exchange” platform designed to catalogue agentic AI solutions for different industries and use cases.

Dev described the platform as a practical entry point for organizations seeking to identify real-world AI applications rather than simply experimenting with the technology.

At the same time, he cautioned that successful AI adoption requires far more than deploying large language models or AI applications.

“AI spans across all domains of technology,” he said. “It requires infrastructure availability, power availability, network availability, data readiness, security, and governance guardrails.”

According to Dev, many enterprises remain uncertain about where to begin their AI journeys, particularly as the technology introduces new operational and cybersecurity complexities.

“Customers are under a lot of dilemma about where to start and how to go about it,” he said.

One emerging advantage, however, is that modern AI systems are becoming increasingly capable of working with imperfect or unstructured data environments, lowering traditional barriers to entry.

“In the AI age, it is possible to work with what we used to call dirty data,” Dev explained. “Earlier, organizations needed significant time to clean and structure their data before adoption.”

Still, he warned that AI simultaneously expands enterprise vulnerability exposure by introducing new attack surfaces and security risks.

Cybersecurity, he argued, must evolve alongside AI adoption rather than being treated as a secondary consideration.

“It has to go hand in hand,” Dev said. “You cannot build those systems without putting the right guardrails in place.”

He explained that AI is now influencing cybersecurity in two opposing ways. While threat actors are increasingly using AI to exploit vulnerabilities and accelerate attacks, defenders are also leveraging AI to build more resilient security systems.

“The hackers are also using AI,” he said. “So you really need to play catch up and ensure that you are secure.”

Dev added that AI-driven systems introduce new risks around data exposure, especially when enterprise information is processed through external large language models.

“Your data gets exposed when it goes to an external LLM,” he said. “There are new ways of infiltrating systems through prompting actions, and these are entirely new threat surfaces emerging with AI.”

As enterprises continue investing in AI, Dev believes CIOs and technology leaders must shift their focus from hype-driven adoption toward measurable business outcomes.

“The best way to measure success is to adopt processes that have immediate impact on business outcomes,” he said.

He also pointed to the growing importance of efficiency metrics such as energy usage, compute optimization, and what he described as “token economics” — the ability to maximize AI intelligence and outcomes while minimizing computational and power consumption.

“Power and energy are going to become extremely critical resources now that AI data centers are driving enormous demand,” Dev noted.

For African enterprises preparing for the next phase of digital transformation, Dev believes success will depend on balancing innovation with practical implementation, infrastructure readiness, and strong cybersecurity foundations.

“Innovation can still happen under constraints,” he said. “In fact, good innovation happens in constraints.”