Ai Kenya, founded by Alfred Ongere, began in 2017 as a volunteer-led effort to demystify artificial intelligence for students and developers in Nairobi.
What started as casual meet-ups and weekend tutorials has since transformed into a fully fledged AI agency with corporate clients, policy contributions, and a growing footprint in East Africa. The startup is no longer a side project.
Ongere revealed he left his role at a local fintech and neobank to focus on Ai Kenya full-time, a move that signals both rising demand for AI literacy in Kenya and the agency’s ambition to occupy a strategic space in the region’s rapidly expanding AI landscape.
“Ai Kenya operates as a for-profit company,” Ongere said. “Our community program is a form of CSR that we provide to contribute towards the economic and technological development of the country.”
What You Should Know
Ai Kenya describes itself as a “360 Degree AI agency”, serving organisations at every stage of their AI journey. Its services include corporate AI training, advisory and readiness assessments, hackathons and innovation challenges, software development, AI summits and executive events.
The goal, Ongere says, is to provide practical pathways for businesses that know AI matters but lack the expertise to adopt it safely or strategically.
“We want more businesses to intentionally experiment and grow their AI adoption, and break the barriers of efficiency that they currently have,” he said. “So we provide well-curated discussions and spaces that speak a language that they can understand.”
Ai Kenya generates revenue through consulting services such as corporate trainings, readiness audits, advisory programmes, “hackathon as a service”, candidate screening, and enterprise events such as its AI Business Breakfast Summits.
Bootstrapped and Intentional About Growth
Ai Kenya sits under a parent entity, Mind Intelligence, and has grown without external investors, grants, or venture capital. Ongere has funded the agency from his own income and is now expanding the team as the company moves into a more structured phase.
Beyond commercial work, Ai Kenya plays an active role in shaping national AI policy. The team revealed it contributed to Kenya’s National AI Strategy released by the Ministry of ICT, and in 2024, it helped challenge a proposed Robotics and AI Society Bill that critics said lacked transparency and public consultation.
“We collaborate with different institutions, particularly the government, NGOs, associations, and professional bodies. We play an active role in policy, regulation, and strategy discussions that touch on AI as an area,” he said.
This dual role, as both practitioner and policy participant allows Ai Kenya to shape how AI is introduced, regulated, and adopted in the country.
A Growing Client Base
According to Ai Kenya, its client list spans both local and international organisations, including Microsoft – which supported its podcast on ecosystem mapping, Uber, McKinsey, Insight2Impact (i2i), global Partnerships for Sustainable Development Data, and Pulitzer Centre collaborations.
The agency has organised hackathons, townhalls, and executive sessions for multiple partners, giving it credibility beyond Kenya’s borders. Its programmes also highlight underexplored labour issues in AI supply chains.
While Kenya remains the core market, Ongere is eyeing broader East African opportunities. But he stresses that expansion will only follow once the organisation achieves key structural and programmatic milestones.
Ai Kenya’s multisectoral mandate, spanning fintech, healthtech, education, public policy, and emerging industries positions it as a flexible operator in a region where AI adoption varies widely by sector.
Staying Connected to the Global AI Ecosystem
Despite being locally grounded, Ai Kenya remains active in global AI conversations. The team has participated in events such as GITEX Global (Dubai), Elevate Festival (Austria), and Deep Learning Indaba.
Ongere says the organisation does not belong to any single coalition but contributes where alignment exists.
Over the past seven years, Ai Kenya says it has directly empowered more than 10,000 people through training, events, and community programmes. Ongere says the next phase is about deepening that impact sustainably.
What This Means
The AI market in Africa is growing rapidly. By 2030, Africa’s AI market is projected to grow from US$4.5 billion in 2025 to US$16.5 billion by 203, marking a 27.42% annual increase.
Despite this growth, the continent continues to receive only a small fraction of global AI investment, which underscores resilience and resourcefulness among locally grown firms.
Analysts say this underscores a growing market for agencies that can bridge technical capabilities with local context, a niche that Ai Kenya aims to occupy.
Under this view, experts say firms like Ai Kenya that prioritise AI literacy, corporate readiness, regulatory engagement and cross-sector consulting are particularly well-positioned to shape continental adoption.
Talking Points
It is impressive that Ai Kenya has evolved from a grassroots community initiative into a full-service AI agency, addressing a critical gap in AI literacy and adoption for businesses in Kenya and beyond.
This approach of combining corporate training, advisory services, hackathons, and AI summits positions Ai Kenya as a practical partner for organisations that want to implement AI meaningfully, rather than just chasing global hype.
At Techparley, we see how initiatives like this can accelerate AI adoption in Africa, helping companies experiment, learn, and integrate AI tools in ways that improve efficiency and competitiveness.
The agency’s focus on data-driven services, including readiness audits, candidate screening, and advisory work, ensures businesses can operate more strategically with AI, similar to how larger global enterprises leverage the technology.
As Ai Kenya scales, partnerships with global tech firms, regional institutions, and policy bodies could accelerate adoption, deepen expertise, and expand its footprint across East Africa. With the right support, Ai Kenya has the potential to become a catalyst for practical, sustainable AI adoption across the continent.
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