Nigeria urgently needs to create Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions rooted in its local realities, rather than relying on imported technologies designed for foreign markets.
Debola Ibiode, convener of AI at the Action Now conference, described contextual AI as the development of AI solutions specifically tailored to Nigeria's social, economic and cultural environment.
“Gone are the days when we were using European products made for our context,” Ibiode said at the ‘AI in Action Now conference’ in Lagos. “We must start building for our own context so that we can take advantage and find the solution that suits us better and faster.”
He highlighted how AI is dramatically reducing development timelines, noting that applications that previously took a year to build can now be completed in weeks or days with AI-assisted development tools.
While most Nigerians are already using artificial intelligence in some form, the country is just beginning to explore the true potential of AI for business and governance, said Dotun Adeoye, co-founder of AI-in-Nigeria.
The Google and Ipsos 'Our Lives with AI' 2026 report revealed that 93 percent of Nigerians now use artificial intelligence, AI, to learn and understand complex subjects, significantly higher than the global average of 74 percent.
Beyond education, the report shows that 88 percent of Nigerian adults have used AI chatbots, which represents an increase of 18 percentage points from last year and puts Nigeria well ahead of the global average of 62 percent.
The report said that, unlike many regions where AI adoption is largely experimental, Nigeria stands out for its purpose-driven use of technology to solve real-world challenges.
“The larger language model is being adopted in greater quantities,” Adeoye said. “But when it comes to real AI for business use, we're only scratching the surface. Many people still don't fully understand what AI can actually do.”
According to him, this gap represents a major opportunity for investors and businesses that want to optimize operations, improve efficiency and gain competitive advantage through AI-powered solutions.
However, he stressed the importance of responsible AI adoption in Nigeria, warning that rapid innovation without adequate governance could be risky.
He pointed to recent enforcement actions by the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) as evidence that regulators are beginning to take data security and AI-related risks more seriously.
Adeoye raised concerns about what he described as 'shadow AI', where organizations upload sensitive or official documents to AI tools without proper safeguards, as well as the widespread practice of storing Nigerian data outside the country.
“There is a lot of rule-breaking,” he said. “Abuse is happening across all areas, from improper data storage to companies activating accounts or processing customer data without consent.”
Nigeria's AI journey must balance innovation with ethics, governance and local context to ensure that the technology serves society rather than deepening existing challenges.
Commissioner Biodun Ogunleye of the Lagos State Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources stressed public-private partnerships as the optimal model for AI implementation, suggesting that the government should focus on its core functions while collaborating with private sector entities that have the technical expertise to handle data and AI solutions.
Ogunleye stressed the need for solutions that meet the needs of citizens, saying, “Government is not in the business of business. They should let those who have the right structure deal with data and these types of issues.”
