Nigeria occupies sixth position in AI awareness 

New search trends released by Google, yesterday, showed that people in Nigeria continued to search for artificial intelligence (AI) more than ever before.

Google disclosed that search interest in AI has reached a record high around the world and in Nigeria, where searches had more than doubled (+130 per cent) since the same period last year. Searches in Nigeria for ‘What is AI’ also increased by 30 per cent, while searches for “how to use AI” increased by 40 per cent. Nigeria has the sixth highest search interest in AI in Africa – and ranks 25th in the world.

Nigerians are looking to use AI to build their careers and creativity, with trending searches including ‘create a logo with AI’, ‘create CV with AI’, ‘design website with AI’, ‘design a flyer with AI’ and ‘create slides with AI’ – all of which were ‘breakout’ searches in 2024, growing over 5,000 per cent in interest since this time last year.

The technology firm also informed that Nigerians were also interested in learning more about AI and how best to use it. It noted that searches for ‘AI and courses’ had increased by 50 per cent, while top questions include ‘is AI hard to learn’, ‘how to learn AI’ and ‘how to access and learn about AI’.

Search interest in cybersecurity and AI also nearly doubled across Nigeria (+80 per cent), while people showed a clear interest in the future of AI for science.

Searches for AI and healthcare more than doubled (+140 per cent), while searches for AI and medicine increased by 50 per cent and searches for AI and STEM and AI and hospitals both increased by 60 per cent.

West Africa Director at Google, Olumide Balogun, said: “AI has the potential to create opportunities, from the extraordinary to the everyday, for everyone: bringing new waves of innovation, social and economic progress. So, it’s no surprise that the people of Nigeria are already looking to make the most of this transformational technology – finding ways for it to boost their career, creativity, and society.”