African workers are adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) faster than their global counterparts, but a widening gap between current skill sets and future workforce demands is emerging as the continent’s most urgent challenge, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Ghana warned at a workforce forum in Accra this week.
Presenting findings from the PwC Africa Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2025 at the Mövenpick Hotel, Associate Director of Workforce Transformation at PwC Ghana, David Tsey, told industry leaders, academics, and policymakers that while 64 percent of African workers reported using AI at work in the past year — a figure ten percentage points above the global average — only 35 percent believe their current skills will remain relevant over the next three years.
“Research has shown that within 18 months to two years, jobs will change. This is a call for focus on development, upskilling and reskilling,” Mr. Tsey said.
The survey, which polled 49,843 workers across 48 countries and 28 sectors globally, found that AI is expected to impact nearly half of all roles in Africa within three years, with junior and entry-level positions bearing the greatest exposure. Despite this, 64 percent of African respondents said they feel confident about their current job security, suggesting workers may be underestimating how quickly the disruption will arrive.
West African workers emerged as among the most enthusiastic on the continent, with 55 percent expressing excitement about AI’s potential impact on their work, compared to 51 percent across Africa as a whole. Only 10 percent of West African respondents said they were confused about AI’s implications for their roles.
PwC Ghana Partner for Consulting and Risk Services Winfred King told the forum that leaders can no longer treat AI adoption as a future planning exercise. He described it as a present operational reality already reshaping customer service, finance, supply chains, healthcare, and government. He outlined six priorities for business leaders: embedding task-level automation, scaling data-driven decision-making, prioritising reskilling programmes, ensuring responsible AI use, building agile operating models, and fostering psychological safety in the workplace.
Workforce Transformation Africa Leader at PwC South Africa, Dr. Dayalan Govender, directed attention to the specific expectations of younger workers, noting that Millennials and Generation Z (Gen Z) employees, who together make up roughly 73 percent of Africa’s surveyed workforce, prefer output-driven, flexible work arrangements over traditional nine-to-five structures.
The survey also flagged elevated fatigue levels among Gen Z workers aged between 18 and 28, who reported feeling more overwhelmed at work than older colleagues. Mr. Tsey urged business leaders to respond with structured flexibility and supportive management rather than unmanaged remote work.
On the financial side, the survey found that only 32 percent of African households have money left over for savings after meeting basic expenses, compared to 42 percent globally, even as 45 percent of workers said they plan to request a salary raise in the coming year.
