How can we effectively combat the locusts that ravage crops in Africa? In Kenya, a local company, Selina Wamucii, has taken up the challenge by launching an early warning tool based on artificial intelligence. Its operation is simple and formidable: two to three months in advance, farmers receive SMS alerts and consult a heat map of at-risk areas. Kuzi, as it is called, is based on the analysis of satellite data, soil moisture sensors and meteorological data, coupled with machine learning models. Even its name comes from the land: Kuzi means « starling » in Swahili, a bird that feeds on locusts. The result: farming communities can act proactively, without waiting for outside help.
This example illustrates the extent to which AI can become a vital tool of resilience for emerging countries, far beyond the cliché of a technology reserved for rich countries.
AI phone home
The World Bank demonstrates this. In its report « Developing AI to foster development », it lists several concrete uses: in Tunisia, mapping and geospatial analysis were used to measure people’s access to social protection services during the Covid 19 pandemic; in Pakistan, AI was used to design algorithms to facilitate housing loans in the informal economy; in Nigeria, it strengthened the monitoring of public works and citizen participation via the analysis of responses sent by cell phone.
These are all examples of AI helping to fill structural gaps. As with mobile telephony in the 2000s, it could enable emerging countries to leapfrog stages. But there is a downside: technological dependence on digital giants, increased digital divide, loss of data sovereignty.
Morocco in search of a strategy
What about Morocco? After years of scattered initiatives, the kingdom seems to be turning a corner. The National AI Conference, organized in July 2025, marked a turning point: the State, UM6P, OCP and technology companies displayed a shared determination. Morocco is positioning itself as an African player in ethical AI, applied to its priority challenges: energy, agriculture, climate. « Can industry survive without AI? The answer is no », decided Ryad Mezzour, Minister of Industry and Trade, quoted by Médias24. A sign of the government’s growing awareness.
Back in June 2024, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) issued a reminder in an opinion that AI is a major lever for transforming the country. But a lever hampered by the absence of a specific legal framework, the scarcity of open data, the shortage of skills and startup financing difficulties. The CESE called for a clear national strategy, targeted on a few priority sectors – healthcare, education, agriculture – and supported by open data, an investment fund, tax incentives and the integration of AI into educational curricula.
Concrete initiatives
At the same time, a number of projects are underway. The AI Movement center in Rabat, set up in 2021 by OCP and backed by UM6P, sees itself as a Moroccan and African AI hub. Its many achievements include a mobile application that transforms texts into Arabic audio files for illiterate women, drone swarms for precision agriculture and security, urban mapping tools, water filtering solutions and even avian disease detection in Africa.
On the government side, the Minister for Energy Transition, Leila Benali, is convinced that AI is a strategic tool for the success of Morocco’s energy mix by 2030. These are all initiatives that testify to a dynamic, but which need to be coordinated and amplified by a coherent national vision.
Written in French by Zakaria Choukrallah; Edited in English by AngloMedia Group.
