Beyond the Buzzwords: Decolonising AI Education in African Business Schools

Leigh Anne Naicker

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Abstract

Artificial intelligence is no longer on the horizon. It is embedded in procurement systems, customer experience ence design, regulatory compliance, and logistics optimisation. From how credit is scored in Nigeria to how procurement systems operate in Kenya or customer experience platforms run in South Africa; AI now dictates efficiency, access, and advantage. Yet, African business schools still treat AI education as peripheral, often housing it in optional modules or short courses rather than embedding it within the core curriculum. There needs to be a shift toward ethical, innovative and socially responsive leadership; this cannot emerge from learning programmes that are disconnected from digital realities. Africa’s digital future is being shaped without its languages, its business environments, or its contextual realities taking centre stage. Despite this reality, African business schools remain slow to interrogate what an indigenous AI curriculum should look like. AI remains an occasional buzzword in guest lectures or optional modules geared towards technologists, rather than a core transversal capability to be embedded across disciplines. Such omission is no longer tenable. Generative AI is fundamentally a communication technology. Its value in business lies not just in automation but in meaning making. The question is no longer whether business schools should teach AI but what kind of AI should be taught, to whom, and in what language.

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