Kenya tops world in AI adoption, new global report shows

Kenya has emerged as the world’s most AI-engaged nation, with nearly all of its online adults now using artificial intelligence tools every month, a new global report shows.

The Digital 2026 Mid-Year Global Update Report, published by DataReportal in partnership with We Are Social and Manochi, found that 97.5 percent of surveyed internet users in Kenya had used at least one AI tool in the past month. That is the highest adoption rate recorded among the 54 countries tracked.

The finding is drawn from GWI’s Core survey, which polled more than 240,000 people aged 16 and above across the world’s largest economies between late 2025 and early this year. Those markets together account for more than 80 percent of the global internet population.

Kenya ranked ahead of the United Arab Emirates, which placed second at 94.2 percent, and Indonesia, third at 93.6 percent.

The result stands in sharp contrast to several major Western economies. Just 71.5 percent of online adults in the United States said they had used AI in the past month, nearly 10 percentage points below the global average. In the United Kingdom, the figure was 62.8 percent. Japan was the only surveyed market where fewer than half of respondents reported using AI at all.

Kenya’s lead comes amid a broader global surge in AI adoption. The report estimates that 4.02 billion adults worldwide, or 48.6 percent of the global population, now use some form of AI at least once a month, once tools built into everyday software such as Microsoft Office, Google Workspace and Canva are counted alongside standalone platforms like ChatGPT.

Active use of generative AI platforms specifically has more than doubled over the past year, growing 141 percent to reach 2.42 billion users globally.

The report’s authors note that GWI’s data suggests users in economies outside its survey, many of them lower- and middle-income countries, tend to over-index on AI use relative to the global average. That indicates adoption in unsampled markets could be higher still.

Kenya’s ranking builds on the country’s track record of leapfrogging conventional technology infrastructure, a pattern established previously with mobile money.

The finding also lands at a pivotal moment for the country’s AI governance. Public consultation on the draft Kenya Artificial Intelligence and Other Emerging Technologies Policy 2026 closed on August 4, following months of work by a Technical Working Group drawn from academia, government, startups and civil society, and supported by partners including the Kenya ICT Action Network, the British High Commission, the European Union, Germany and Canada.

The draft policy builds on the National AI Strategy 2025-2030, launched in March 2025 under the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy, and sets out a four-tier governance structure anchored by a National AI and Other Emerging Technologies Steering Committee and a new regulatory council. It also proposes a Kenya AI Safety Institute for testing and risk classification, a public AI and Emerging Technologies Registry, and a National African Languages and Voice Programme aimed at building AI systems that work in Kenyan and African languages rather than English alone.

The policy is expected to move toward Cabinet consideration once feedback from the consultation is incorporated, running alongside a separate AI Bill currently before Parliament.

That regulatory groundwork is arriving even as usage races ahead of it. With Kenya now leading the world in monthly AI adoption, the country’s policymakers face pressure to have the governance architecture, from the proposed Safety Institute to sector-specific standards, funded and operational before gaps in oversight become apparent.

The report cautions that adoption figures measure usage rather than depth of engagement. It found that “finding information” remains the top reason people turn to AI tools worldwide, ahead of seeking advice or improving skills.

Download the FREE Kaspersky Next Enterprise Security Guide here to explore the complete framework for simplifying security operations and building cyber resilience.

Go to TECHTRENDSKE.co.ke for more tech and business news from the African continent and across the world.

Follow us on WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter, and Facebook, or subscribe to our weekly newsletter to ensure you don’t miss out on any future updates. Send tips to editorial@techtrendsmedia.co.ke