Last weekend, I attended a community meetup hosted by ATC Digital Academy under Janet Machuka and the Data Analytics Kenya under Bern Njathi as the president and Mutanu Malinda as the vice president, at Bao Box, Nairobi. Like many technology meetups, I expected conversations around innovation, demonstrations of new AI tools, and predictions. Those conversations happened, of course, but what made the morning memorable was the willingness of techies and marketers in the room to challenge popular narratives. Glad to sit and listen to Declan Munene, Bern Njathi, Tom Kinyanjui Njoroge, Bobb Nyaande, Victor Karanja and Edith Wanjiru.

There were moments of disagreement, healthy debate and thoughtful reflection. More importantly, there was a shared recognition that while artificial intelligence is advancing at an incredible pace, our conversations about it need to mature just as quickly. I walked away feeling less interested in what AI can do and more interested in what we, as Kenyans and as Africans, should be asking about it.

As I reflected on the discussions on my way home, one thought refused to leave my mind.

Kenya isn’t lacking AI conversations. We’re lacking the right AI conversations.

Every week, there seems to be another headline promising that AI will transform industries, eliminate jobs, create new careers, or revolutionize the way we work. Social media is flooded with tutorials, opinions, and bold predictions about what artificial intelligence can achieve.

Beneath all the excitement, there are critical questions that often receive very little attention. We spend so much time debating whether AI is the future that we rarely pause to ask what kind of future we’re actually building, who gets to shape it, and whether we’re preparing ourselves to use it responsibly.

AI isn’t Here to Replace Humans

One of the biggest misconceptions discussed during the meetup was the belief that AI can eventually replace people entirely. We’ve all heard the claims that AI will run businesses without human intervention, replace creative professionals or make certain careers obsolete.

While these ideas generate headlines and attract attention online, the conversation during the meetup offered a far more balanced perspective. One speaker remarked that we underestimate how much people value human input, and I found myself thinking about that statement long after the session ended.

The fact is that people don’t connect with output. They truly connect with the thinking behind it. Creativity is shaped by lived experiences, emotions, relationships, cultural understanding, empathy and context. These are qualities developed over years of living, failing, succeeding and interacting with the world.

Get me right, AI can generate impressive content within seconds, but it cannot genuinely:

• understand what it means to grow up in Nairobi,
• build a business in Kisumu,
• navigate workplace challenges in Mombasa,
• or tell stories rooted in African communities. Those experiences belong to people, and that’s precisely why the human element will continue to matter.

Rather than seeing AI as a replacement, perhaps we should see it as a remarkably capable assistant. It can help us work faster, analyse larger volumes of information, automate repetitive tasks and even spark creative ideas. But assistance should never be confused with authorship.

AI is Powerful But it isn’t Always Right

One speaker pointed out that AI doesn’t actually “know” things in the way humans do. It predicts likely responses based on patterns in data, and because of that, it can confidently produce information that is incomplete, misleading or entirely fabricated. What we call hallucination.

The quality of AI’s output depends heavily on the quality of the prompts we provide, the context we supply and, perhaps most importantly, our willingness to verify what it produces.

Is AI a Bubble?

I loved this question and how Victor Karanja approached it. In his response, he jokingly talked about how, during their Homo erectus evolution stage, they discovered fire. Of course, he was present, haha! He says the moment their village discovered fire, the fire topic could not settle until every village could create its own fire and it became a usual thing.

Declan Munene argued that the financial excitement surrounding artificial intelligence has outpaced its practical value. They pointed to inflated company valuations, overwhelming media attention and unrealistic expectations that suggest AI can solve almost every business challenge. Edith Wanjiru disagreed, arguing that AI has already begun transforming society in meaningful ways and that dismissing it as another passing trend would be shortsighted, a good example being how data is being used to understand the social issues and agricultural improvements.

Personally, I found value in both perspectives. History reminds us that transformative technologies often experience periods of intense hype before settling into practical, sustainable use.

1. The internet went through that phase.
2. Social media did too.
3. Cloud computing followed a similar trajectory.

The excitement eventually faded after they were integrated into everyday life. Perhaps AI will follow the same path.

The AI conversations I wish Kenyans were having

As valuable as the panel discussions were, I couldn’t help noticing the conversations that deserved even more attention. If Kenya is serious about embracing AI, we need to expand the discussion beyond productivity hacks and job replacement narratives.

We should be asking:

1. whether our digital infrastructure is capable of supporting widespread AI adoption. Reliable internet access, affordable computing resources and digital inclusion remain significant challenges for many communities, and without addressing them, AI risks becoming a privilege for a few rather than an opportunity for many. Tom Kinyanjui Njoroge believes that without the infrastructure conversation, we have a long way to go.
2. We also need to bring more voices into policy discussions. Developers, engineers, communication professionals, educators, lawyers, entrepreneurs and researchers should all have a place at the table when decisions about AI governance are being made. Too often, policies are created without sufficient input from the people building or implementing these technologies. Effective governance requires technical expertise just as much as it requires legal and political oversight. Edith Wanjiru, I loved how bare you were on this.
3. Another area that deserves far more attention is the economics of AI as presented by Declan Munene. We frequently hear about the benefits of automation, but we rarely discuss the actual costs of implementation. AI isn’t simply about paying for a subscription to a software platform. Businesses must invest in infrastructure, cybersecurity, data management, staff training, maintenance and continuous improvement. Those costs matter, particularly for startups and small businesses trying to balance innovation with sustainability.
4. Bobb Nyaande spoke on how we need more honest conversations about AI in finance and risk management. If AI systems make biased lending decisions, misinterpret financial data or automate poor judgments at scale, the consequences could be significant. Balanced conversations acknowledge both possibilities.
5. Victor Karanja was keen on intellectual property, a subject I believe deserves far more attention across Africa. AI can generate articles, artwork, music and code within seconds, but it cannot replace authentic cultural memory or lived experience. Africa possesses one of the richest storytelling traditions in the world, and this technological moment presents us with a remarkable opportunity. Rather than allowing our narratives to be shaped elsewhere, we should be using AI to strengthen our ability to preserve, share and celebrate our own stories while ensuring creators receive the recognition and protection they deserve.

Africa’s Greatest Advantage isn’t AI. It’s Originality.

Perhaps my biggest reflection from the meetup was this: Africa’s competitive advantage has never been technology alone. Our greatest asset has always been our people. It is our ability to innovate despite constraints, to build communities, to solve problems creatively and to tell stories that carry generations of history within them. AI may become an incredibly powerful tool, but tools are only as valuable as the people using them.

The opportunity before us is not to compete with machines.
It is to combine human creativity with technological capability in ways that reflect our realities, solve our own challenges and amplify African voices. AI can assist us in telling our stories faster and reaching wider audiences, but the stories themselves, the experiences, the wisdom and the perspectives, must still come from us

Speaking of creativity and originality in Africa, I love seeing organizations keen on spearheading the creative sector in Africa. We need to solve challenges that affect the way we create and tell our stories. ICRW Africa is currently releasing 7 Behind The Scenes Project’s reports, Behind The Scenes, which focus on the gender-related challenges of young women in the Creative Sectors of seven African countries, namely: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Rwanda, Nigeria, and Uganda. The project leverages the ingenuity and energy of young creatives and researchers in these countries to explore the gender norms and practices affecting young women’s access to dignified and fulfilling work in the Creative Sector. Glad to see them champion creativity in Africa.

“If the hype settles tomorrow, what remains?” asked Killian Muthami

Towards the end of the session, someone asked a question that I believe every professional should consider.

What happens if the AI bubble bursts?

The answer, in my view, has very little to do with AI itself.

If your career is built solely around one technology, one platform or one trend, change will always feel threatening. But if your career is built around timeless capabilities, you remain valuable regardless of which technologies rise or fall.

• Tools will evolve.
• Markets will shift.
• New innovations will emerge.
• The professionals who thrive will be those who understand that technology should strengthen their expertise, not replace the foundations upon which that expertise is built.

My Biggest Takeaway

The organisations and professionals who will lead in this next era won’t necessarily be those with access to the most sophisticated AI tools. They will be those who know when to trust AI, when to question it, and when to rely on something no algorithm can replicate: human judgment, wisdom and empathy.

Perhaps that is the conversation Kenya needs more of. Not whether AI will replace us. But how can we become even more human in an AI-powered world?