For Nigerian entrepreneur and educator Polycarp Okezie, the artificial intelligence conversation should not end with learning how to write prompts or discovering the latest AI tools.

The more important question, he argues, is what people can build with the technology and whether those solutions address problems customers are willing to pay to solve.

Known professionally as “The AI Guy”, Okezie has built his work around teaching people to approach artificial intelligence from an entrepreneurial perspective, with an emphasis on developing marketable skills, creating digital products and identifying potential business opportunities.

His message comes as generative AI tools continue to change how people create content, analyse information, write software and automate everyday business processes.

For Nigeria, where unemployment and underemployment remain significant challenges, Okezie believes the technology could provide another route through which young people develop commercially useful skills.

But he makes a distinction between simply using AI and building economic value around it.

“Don’t just use AI. Build with AI. And learn how to turn what you build into something people will pay for,” Okezie said.

At the centre of Okezie’s approach is a relatively simple principle: technology becomes commercially useful when it solves a problem.

Rather than beginning with an AI application and searching for something to do with it, he encourages learners to identify problems faced by individuals or businesses before considering whether artificial intelligence can provide part of the solution.

That could mean using AI to improve an existing service, automate repetitive work or help develop a new digital product.

The commercial question comes afterwards: Who needs the solution, what value does it provide and why would somebody pay for it?

It is this business-oriented approach that Okezie says distinguishes productive use of AI from experimentation with the technology.

Through CARPEX AI Academy, he teaches an approach built around identifying problems, developing solutions, taking them to market, automating parts of the process and delivering value to customers.

The objective, according to Okezie, is not simply to produce more AI users.

He wants to encourage people to become builders.

Okezie’s own interest in technology and entrepreneurship developed through a journey that began in Kaduna, where he acquired some of his early creative and technology skills.

He subsequently moved to Lagos and continued developing his interests around digital technology, entrepreneurship and artificial intelligence.

That experience informs the way he talks about technology today.

For Okezie, acquiring a skill is only one stage of professional development. The next challenge is understanding how that skill can become economically useful.

It is a particularly relevant question in the age of generative AI.

The availability of increasingly capable AI systems has lowered some of the barriers to tasks that previously required specialised technical knowledge. People can now use AI tools to assist with writing, design, research, coding, data analysis and numerous business processes.

Access to the tools, however, does not automatically produce a viable business.

The ability to identify genuine customer problems, build useful solutions and find people willing to pay for them remains fundamental.

That is where Okezie believes entrepreneurial thinking becomes important.

Okezie sees the emerging AI economy as an opportunity for Nigerians to participate in a technological shift while it is still developing.

His broader ambition is to encourage young Nigerians to move beyond consuming products developed elsewhere and consider what they can create themselves.

That could include digital services, software products, automation businesses or other commercially useful applications built with the assistance of artificial intelligence.

The distinction is significant.

Using an AI chatbot to complete a task more quickly can improve productivity. Building a product or service around a recurring problem potentially creates an asset that can serve multiple customers.

Okezie wants more Nigerians to understand that second possibility.

It does not mean that every AI experiment will become a successful company or that artificial intelligence provides an automatic route to income.

Building a sustainable business still requires identifying demand, understanding customers, pricing effectively, acquiring users and consistently delivering something of value.

AI can change how some of those tasks are performed, but it does not eliminate them.

That commercial reality is an important part of the approach Okezie advocates.

The rapid adoption of generative AI has also produced considerable hype around making money from the technology.

Social media platforms are filled with promises about AI businesses, automated income and opportunities to earn money quickly using newly released tools.

Okezie’s problem-first philosophy offers a more practical test.

If an AI-powered product does not solve a meaningful problem, the novelty of the technology alone is unlikely to create a sustainable business.

The same applies to skills.

Learning how to operate an AI application may have immediate value, but individual tools can change rapidly. Understanding how to analyse problems, work with customers and apply technology to useful outcomes can have longer-term relevance.

For Nigerians seeking opportunities within the emerging AI economy, that distinction could prove important.

Okezie’s ambition extends beyond helping people become more efficient users of artificial intelligence.

He wants more Nigerians to participate in creating the businesses and products emerging around the technology.

That means moving from asking what an AI tool can do to asking what problem can be solved with it.

It also means thinking beyond immediate income towards ownership.

A freelancer can use AI to deliver a service more efficiently. An entrepreneur can potentially use similar technology to develop a repeatable product, system or business.

Both approaches can create economic value, but the latter is closer to the future Okezie says he wants to encourage.

Through his work as The AI Guy and CARPEX AI Academy, he is attempting to make that entrepreneurial interpretation of artificial intelligence accessible to more people.

The success of that mission will ultimately be measured not by how many people learn to use AI tools, but by what they are able to build with them.

For Okezie, that is where the real opportunity begins.