Artificial intelligence is headline news everywhere. People talk about revolution, about jobs being replaced, about a transformed world. But in Lomé, in the markets and the workshops, nobody talks about ChatGPT. People talk about selling, about getting by, about finding the next client. The question is simple: does AI have a place here?
AI is not what people think
In the popular imagination, AI means robots, self-driving cars, image generators replacing artists. The reality is more modest and more useful. AI today is a processing tool — for text, images, data — that can be fitted into simple, reachable, useful applications.
A trader sorting sales by category. A farmer receiving a personalised weather alert. A photographer retouching images in one click. That is AI, even if nobody calls it that.
Three concrete uses in Togo
Farming. Applications that read the weather and advise the best moment to plant. AI does not need to understand Wolof or Ewe — it needs local data, and that data already sits in farmers' phones.
Trade. A tool that predicts which products sell better according to season, place and events. No data scientist required: a simple model trained on one trader's own history can make the difference.
Services. A chatbot answering a provider's frequent questions. A system automating appointment reminders. A filter surfacing the strongest candidates for a job. AI as an assistant, not a replacement.
The real obstacles
The obstacles are not technical. They are cultural and economic. Internet access is still expensive. Trust in digital tools varies. Fear of complexity slows adoption. And above all, what is missing are products designed here, for here — not imported tools that assume infrastructure we do not have.
What I believe
AI in Africa will not be a copy of what is done elsewhere. It will be pragmatic, local, modest. It will solve real problems, not theoretical ones. And it will be built by people who live here, who understand the constraints, and who do not mistake technical sophistication for real impact.
The day a trader in the Grand Marché uses an AI-based tool without knowing it, without anyone explaining that it is AI, simply because it saves them time and money — that is the day AI will have started to change something here.