Artificial intelligence will transform 49% of jobs in Africa within three years, according to findings from PwC’s Africa Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey — though a majority of workers on the continent say they feel confident about their job security despite the shift.
The survey, which polled 49,843 workers across 48 countries and 28 sectors, found that 64% of African workers used AI at work in the past year, well above the 54% global average. Despite that broad adoption, only 17% reported using AI on a daily basis.
David Tsey, associate director of workforce transformation at PwC Ghana, presented the findings at a forum held at the Mövenpick Hotel in Accra. He said there is significant excitement and curiosity across the continent about AI’s role in the workplace. “There is a lot of excitement, a lot of curiosity, and a lot of positive feeling about the impact AI will have on work,” he said.
George Smith-Graham, CEO of Ghana’s Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, used the occasion to argue that AI adoption must be tied to measurable productivity gains. He said Ghana has reached a point where salary increases can no longer be automatic but must instead be linked to demonstrated improvements in performance and output. “We are not going to just allow employees coming and just asking for salary increases,” he said. “We need to make sure that the increases are linked to productivity.”
Dayalan Govender, workforce transformation Africa leader at PwC South Africa, advised organizational leaders to understand what motivates their employees and to recognize the distinct expectations of younger workers entering the workforce. “Those millennials, those Gen Z coming to your business — they like flexibility in terms of how they work. It’s more output-driven,” he said.
Winfred King, a partner in consulting and risk services at PwC Ghana, said leaders must be prepared to actively drive change by integrating upskilling, technology-driven transformation and human-centered approaches to build sustainable performance across Africa’s diverse workforce.
The forum brought together voices from industry, academia, government and policy to examine how Africa can navigate the rapid transformation of workplaces driven by AI. A central theme was how employers can proactively manage employee uncertainty through investment in reskilling and upskilling programs that enable workforce transformation without eroding institutional trust.
