AI’s Next Frontier Isn’t Where You Might Expect | Hardy Pemhiwa | TED

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 15:07:53 +0000

With a billion mobile phone users and a median population age of 19, Africa isn't catching up to the AI revolution — it's writing an entirely different playbook, says business leader Hardy Pemhiwa. He shows how a generation of entrepreneurs is using AI to teach classes, triage patients and boost farm yields through the power of local compute, local data and local languages. (Recorded at TEDAI Vienna on September 26, 2025)

Join us in person at a TED conference: https://tedtalks.social/events
Become a TED Member to support our mission: https://ted.com/membership
Subscribe to a TED newsletter: https://ted.com/newsletters

Follow TED!
X: https://www.twitter.com/TEDTalks
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ted
Facebook: https://facebook.com/TED
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ted-conferences
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tedtoks

The TED Talks channel features talks, performances and original series from the world's leading thinkers and doers. Subscribe to our channel for videos on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. Visit https://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.

Watch more: https://go.ted.com/hardypemhiwa

https://youtu.be/P1rPiSxYagM

TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy: https://www.ted.com/about/our-....organization/our-pol For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com