Bill Gates: Africa Needs Better Data to Unlock AI’s Promise

Bill Gates, chairman of the Gates Foundation, has urged African governments to speed up work on the data infrastructure needed to capture the benefits of artificial intelligence. The Microsoft co-founder told CNBC Africa that he has committed more than $1 billion to AI projects, with the majority located on the continent.

Gates said the foundation sees AI as a practical tool in three sectors: health, agriculture and education. He described it as an “accelerant” that can help address long-standing shortages of skills, services and information.

Data Quality Comes First

“Commitment to having lots of good data is where you get the benefit from the AI system,” Gates said. “Working with farmers in Africa, students in Africa, patients in Africa, through governments, is how we achieve our ambitious 20-year goals and AI will help us accelerate those goals.”

He argued that AI will not replace human expertise. Instead, it can raise productivity. “It can take the talent you have and allow them to be four times more productive,” he said.

Gates pointed to Rwanda as an example of progress. During a recent visit, he said he was encouraged by efforts to consolidate healthcare information to track disease patterns, monitor health workers and improve decision-making.

Agriculture and Language Barriers

Agriculture could be one of the biggest beneficiaries, Gates said, especially through AI tools that interact with farmers in local languages and offer guidance that improves productivity. Agriculture is a major source of employment and income across Africa, so such gains could carry significant economic benefits.

The Gates Foundation is also funding projects in countries such as India, where digital systems are already being deployed at scale in agriculture.

But Gates identified a major challenge: African languages are poorly represented in today’s leading AI models. Even in relatively advanced digital economies such as Kenya and Rwanda, users still encounter errors and inconsistent results when interacting with AI systems.

To close the gap, the foundation is working with AI companies and other partners to collect African-language data and make it publicly available. The aim is to improve support for languages spoken by at least one million people and ensure both open and proprietary AI models serve African users more effectively.

Governments Must Move

Gates named India, Singapore and Rwanda as early examples of governments moving decisively to build the foundations for AI adoption. For Africa, he said fragmented administrative systems and incomplete records make deployment more challenging. But they also increase the potential value of AI if governments strengthen data collection and governance.

“The African languages today are not well represented in these models,” Gates said. He added that ensuring African data and languages are properly incorporated into AI systems will be critical to preventing the continent from being left behind as the technology advances.

For Nigerian businesses and consumers, the message is direct: the gains from AI will depend on how well African data, languages and public systems are organised. Without that foundation, the continent risks importing tools that do not fully understand its markets, farmers, patients or students.