By Aldridge Dzvene | Positive Eye News
In a country wrestling with economic uncertainty, climate-related risks, and service delivery challenges, Zimbabwe stands at a decisive technological crossroads. The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a transformative force offers both a test of vision and an opportunity to reimagine development with inclusion, equity, and innovation at the core. The question confronting Zimbabwe is not whether AI will shape the future, but how the nation will choose to shape AI today.
While global debates on AI tend to focus on the tension between automation and employment, Zimbabwe’s context calls for a more grounded conversation, one that links technology with everyday survival, youth empowerment, and national transformation. Encouragingly, early signals of a digital awakening are becoming visible. Across Harare, Bulawayo, and smaller towns, young innovators are exploring language-based AI chatbots, health diagnostics, and agriculture-focused applications tailored to local needs. Platforms like AI ZW Network, Impact Hub Harare, and Uncommon.org are incubating the kind of grassroots solutions that suggest AI is not just a global export but a homegrown response to real challenges.
In Zimbabwe’s critical economic sectors, these advances are beginning to take root. In agriculture, which employs over 60% of the population, the deployment of 30 automatic weather stations and several hydro-gauging systems, supported by UNDP, is equipping communities with timely climate data to prepare for droughts, floods, and changing weather patterns. In mining, exploratory steps toward AI-assisted drilling and safety monitoring point to a future where technology enhances productivity and protects lives, even if such applications are still in their infancy.
Globally, the 2025 Human Development Report by the UNDP delivers a powerful insight: AI is not the future, it is the present, and its impact will depend on the choices made today. That report highlights that despite the promise of AI, global human development progress has stalled to its slowest pace in over three decades, largely due to persistent inequality and the COVID-19 pandemic’s ripple effects. For Zimbabwe, which continues to grapple with youth unemployment, service delivery bottlenecks, and infrastructure gaps, AI presents a chance to bend that curve back toward progress, but only if harnessed deliberately and inclusively.
The task before Zimbabwe is to build a complementary economy in which AI does not replace jobs but enhances them. Precision agriculture, AI-assisted weather forecasting, and smart irrigation could dramatically improve yields and resilience for smallholder farmers. Informal traders, especially women and youth, could benefit from AI-powered mobile apps that manage stock, track sales, or assess creditworthiness. Drawing lessons from Nigeria’s AI-driven financial inclusion models and Rwanda’s drone-assisted farming systems, Zimbabwe’s innovators can design systems suited to our context, especially in underserved rural areas.
Yet innovation must be purposeful. It must be rooted in local languages, aligned with national priorities, and designed for low-data environments. This is where institutions like the Harare Institute of Technology, NUST, and grassroots learning platforms are stepping in. Students and developers are crafting solutions in education, health, and agriculture that speak to real problems faced by ordinary Zimbabweans. Kenya’s “Daktari Smart” and Chile’s AI-based education risk assessment systems demonstrate the practical value of people-centred AI, and Zimbabwe’s developers are not far behind.
For these ideas to become reality, AI literacy and digital skills must become foundational elements of the national education strategy. Curriculum reform is essential. AI coding, data science, and ethical digital use must be introduced early, and investment in teacher training is vital. Zimbabwe has taken promising steps through the Digital Skills Audit and the National Innovation Strategy, but these must now be backed with infrastructure: reliable electricity, affordable internet, and access to devices across schools and training institutions.
But there is also a moral imperative. If AI is to advance development, it must not deepen existing inequalities. Rural schools and clinics, already struggling with limited resources, risk being excluded from the AI revolution. If the digital divide is not addressed, it could evolve into a dangerous AI divide. Uruguay’s experience with universal student laptop access and AI-powered e-learning platforms shows that inclusive design and strong political will can overcome such gaps.
Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030 and National Development Strategy 1 clearly articulate an ambition to become a prosperous, upper-middle-income economy. AI, though not a silver bullet, is a critical catalyst for that vision. It has the potential to amplify productivity, boost service delivery, expand access to information, and spark innovation-led economic growth. The role of policymakers, development partners, academic institutions, and private actors is to ensure that this potential is realized equitably.
UNDP Zimbabwe has pledged to walk this journey with the country, not as a passive observer, but as an active partner in shaping policies, building capacity, and fostering innovations that leave no one behind. The future of development is not just about what AI can do, but about what we choose to do with AI now. Zimbabwe, with its youthful population and resilient spirit, has every reason to lead, not just follow, in this next chapter of human progress.
