Zambia has taken a significant step toward accelerating enterprise-level artificial intelligence adoption following an executive AI briefing convened by the Ministry of Technology and Science in partnership with Pranary. The Executive Artificial Intelligence Briefing, held on Tuesday, December 16, 2025, brought together 30 senior decision-makers for a focused discussion on deploying AI at scale in 2025. The session aimed to equip C-suite leaders with practical roadmaps, governance frameworks, and leadership insights needed to align their organisations with Zambia's digital transformation agenda.
Speaking at the briefing, Minister of Technology and Science, Honourable Felix Chipota Mutati, described artificial intelligence as a national imperative, likening it to essential utilities such as electricity. He emphasized that while AI does not require deep technical expertise to use, it demands strong leadership, robust infrastructure, and mindset shifts to deliver real impact. The Minister stressed that AI should complement human intelligence, with wisdom, judgment, and ethical responsibility remaining uniquely human roles. He outlined four critical enablers for AI adoption in Zambia: strengthened digital infrastructure, reliable energy supply, continuous skills development, and trust built through collaboration and governance.
The people dimension of AI transformation was further highlighted by Dr. Lelemba Phiri, Director at ATG, who noted that more than 70 percent of digital transformation initiatives fail due to organisational readiness and leadership challenges rather than technology limitations. She described AI as the most significant workplace shift since the rise of the internet and warned that misalignment between leadership behaviour and strategy often undermines adoption. Dr. Phiri added that skills now have a lifespan of just three to five years, making continuous learning essential, and outlined leadership mandates including visible executive adoption of AI, output-based performance measurement, psychological safety, institutionalised learning, and rewards for efficiency and innovation.
