African startups can leapfrog global rivals by building AI

As businesses across the world race to integrate artificial intelligence into their operations, Product Design Lead and AI-native product development strategist, Matilda Anashie, has urged African startups to seize what she describes as a rare opportunity to build AI-native organisations from the ground up, rather than adapting business models designed long before the technology emerged.

According to her, while many organisations have embraced AI to improve individual productivity, far fewer are redesigning how products are conceived, built and improved. She argues that AI-native product development goes beyond using AI as a tool, it reimagines the entire product development process, embedding artificial intelligence into research, design, engineering and decision-making from the outset.

She explained that many businesses are investing in AI platforms to automate tasks, generate content, improve efficiency and speed up workflows, but warned that organisations treating AI as another software upgrade risk missing the bigger opportunity. .

Anashie, who currently leads AI-native product development initiatives at Must Company, a South Korean technology company operating across multiple international markets, said the work extends beyond integrating AI tools into products. It involves AI-assisted product development, prompt-to-production workflows, design systems governance, rapid prototyping and closer collaboration across product, engineering and design teams to accelerate how ideas move from concept to execution.

She believes Africa is in a stronger position than many established markets because many startups are still building their operating structures. “A lot of organisations in mature markets have spent years building processes that now have to be redesigned,” she said. “African startups have a different opportunity. Many are starting from scratch, which means they can build AI-native organisations from day one instead of trying to retrofit AI into old ways of working.”

Drawing from more than six years of experience across fintech, SaaS, Web3 and the creator economy, Matilda said successful product development increasingly depends on removing barriers between teams and using AI to make product decisions faster and more effectively.

“In the past, teams often worked in silos,” she explained. “Today, AI allows product teams to validate ideas faster, designers to test concepts earlier, engineers to prototype more quickly and business teams to make decisions using better data. The structure of work itself is changing.”

She also pointed to the redesign of Tirra, formerly known as Azawire, as an example of how product strategy can deliver stronger outcomes than technology alone. Following extensive customer research, her team discovered that the biggest challenge was not the platform itself but how users understood its value. That insight informed a complete repositioning of the product, helping it grow from around 100 users with a 30 per cent activation rate to more than 600 waitlist registrations, over 250 pilot users and more than 1,000 beta transactions, while securing partnerships with Sudo, Safe Haven MFB, Bridge by Stripe and cNGN.

She also led product initiatives that contributed to a creator economy platform supporting more than $2 million in creator payouts across Africa. However, Matilda believes Africa’s ability to compete in an AI-driven economy will depend not only on how businesses build products but also on how they prepare future generations to build technology. That conviction led her to co-found the Canann Impact Foundation, to expand access to digital and AI education in underserved communities.

“If Africa wants to compete globally in the age of AI, we can’t stop at teaching young people how to use these tools,” she said. “We have to help them understand how to build with them, solve problems with them and create products that reflect the realities of our communities. That’s how we develop the next generation of innovators, not just technology users.”

Through the foundation, more than 1,800 students across five schools have been introduced to digital and AI literacy through technology clubs, offline technology journals and hands-on learning initiatives designed to make emerging technologies more accessible.

Looking ahead, Anashie said organisations should stop viewing AI as a feature to be added after products are built and instead treat it as a foundation for how products, teams and businesses are designed. “AI-native product development is changing how products are imagined, built and continuously evolved,” she said. “Founders who embrace that shift early will have an advantage, not because they have better AI tools, but because they’ve built organisations that know how to work differently.”

Chisom Michael is a data analyst (audience engagement) and writer at BusinessDay, with diverse experience in the media industry. He holds a BSc in Industrial Physics from Imo State University and an MEng in Computer Science and Technology from Liaoning Univerisity of Technology China. He specialises in listicle writing, profiles and leveraging his skills in audience engagement analysis and data-driven insights to create compelling content that resonates with readers.

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