{"name":"Applied AI in Zambia — the record","description":"Every announced initiative, deployment, published result and regulation of applied AI on the record for Zambia, tagged by kind, industry, region and role, sourced and dated. A slice of the State of Applied AI record, maintained continuously by the Industrial Research Unit of the Straits Institute for Applied AI.","source":"https://www.straitsai.institute/state-of-applied-ai/zambia","partOf":"https://www.straitsai.institute/state-of-applied-ai/evidence.json","attribution":"Industrial Research Unit, Straits Institute for Applied AI","updated":"2026-10-29","facet":{"kind":"country","name":"Zambia","slug":"zambia","iso2":"ZM","region":"Sub-Saharan Africa"},"counts":{"entries":9,"deployments":6,"evidenceImpact":0,"evidenceAdoption":1,"regulation":2,"industries":5,"countries":1,"linked":9},"entries":[{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Agriculture & Food","region":"Zambia","role":"Farmer / extension officer","org":"Ministry of Agriculture of Zambia","text":"Zambia's Ministry of Agriculture has switched on Mulimi360, an E-Extension Platform built around e-Mulangizi, an AI chatbot for farmers meant to replace scattered, face-to-face guidance with on-demand support. The rollout gives rural producers and extension officers one shared digital agricultural extension platform for crop advice, weather forecasts, early warnings, price trends and mapped land data. Authorities launched the sensitisation drive at the Mulungishi International Conference Centre, part of a broader effort to shift farming extension work online nationwide.","date":"2026-07-09","source":"https://efficacynews.africa/2026/07/09/zambia-launches-mulimi360-digital-platform-to-transform-agricultural-extension-services/"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Manufacturing, Energy & Resources","region":"Zambia","role":"Mining drill operators","org":"First Quantum Minerals","text":"First Quantum Minerals has boosted output by over a third at Sentinel, its copper mine in Kalumbila, Zambia, after winning regulatory sign-off for automated mining drilling built with supplier FLANDERS. Three robotic rigs with laser sensors and GPS improve hole precision and blasting results while lowering hazards. Staff now run the equipment from remote control rooms.","date":"2025-12-17","source":"https://im-mining.com/2025/12/17/first-quantum-rolls-out-drill-autonomy-at-sentinel-with-flanders-tech/"},{"kind":"evidence-adoption","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Zambia","org":"Zambia Evidence Lab (Ministry of Finance and National Planning)","text":"A one-day AI for Government Workshop gave Zambian officials grounding in AI training for government officials, hosted by the Ministry of Finance and National Planning's embedded Zambia Evidence Lab (ZEL). Sessions ran from foundational artificial intelligence theory toward practical public-sector applications. The effort reflects a government AI literacy programme equipping policymakers to embed AI in their work.","date":"2025-10-15","source":"https://www.theigc.org/events/ai-gov-workshop"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Healthcare & Life Sciences","region":"Zambia","role":"Doctor, nurse, healthcare worker","org":"Ministry of Technology and Science (Zambia)","text":"Twenty health posts across Zambia's 10 provinces are testing AI diagnostics in healthcare under a new pilot from the Ministry of Technology and Science, the Ministry of Health, 73Health Global and Pentatech Ltd. Finnish equipment allows clinicians to assess patients from afar, and the homegrown Larry RX system flags dangerous drug combinations before they reach a patient. Backers say pairing remote examination with automated prescribing checks should make treatment more uniform nationwide, though independent results are still pending.","date":"2025-06-13","source":"https://www.zambiamonitor.com/zambia-launches-nationwide-pilot-project-to-test-remote-health-diagnostics-ai-based-pharmacological-analysis-tools/"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Zambia","role":"Statistician","org":"Zambia Statistics Agency (ZamStats)","text":"GPT-4 Turbo beat manual coding in Zambia's Labour Force Survey, a Zambia Statistics Agency (ZamStats) and Zambia Evidence Lab trial found. This AI labour force survey classification matched every industry-code digit and the top two occupation-code digits, topping manual work by nearly 7 percentage points on the leading occupation digit. Such AI survey data classification could save up to 130 working days yearly, researchers estimate.","date":"2025-06-12","source":"https://www.theigc.org/blogs/ai-national-statistics-zambia"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Zambia","org":"Cabinet of Zambia","text":"Zambia's cabinet has greenlit, in principle, a bill scrapping the Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021, swapping it for wider Zambia AI governance legislation spanning machine learning and data analytics. Coverage would stretch past personal information alone, pulling in industrial, public and other non-personal data types under one statute. Ministers cleared this shift toward AI regulation in Zambia during the 8th Cabinet Meeting.","date":"2025-04-24","source":"https://www.zambiamonitor.com/cabinet-approves-repeal-of-data-protection-act-to-broaden-legal-framework-for-ai-analytics/"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Media, Telecom & Entertainment","region":"Zambia","role":"Customer service agents","org":"MTN Zambia","text":"MTN Zambia's Call Natasha, built with blackNgreen, automatically handles up to 83% of queries, cutting response times and costs, MTN says. This AI customer service tool answers financial tips, news and general questions in real time, an automated support tool covering everyday account queries in Zambia. The 83% figure is MTN's own, unverified.","date":"2025-01-31","source":"https://techpression.com/mtn-zambia-launches-ai-assistant/"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Zambia","role":"Government communications officer","org":"SMART Zambia Institute","text":"SMART Zambia Institute is building an AI chatbot for misinformation detection to verify government-related claims on social media. Percy Chinyama said the tool will confirm or dispute questionable posts with official positions, giving citizens direct access to facts about state programmes, an AI-powered fact-checking assistant still in development.","date":"2025-01-28","source":"https://techpression.com/zambia-to-introduce-ai-power-system/"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Zambia","org":"Ministry of Technology and Science","text":"Zambia AI policy rests on a five-pillar roadmap from the Ministry of Technology and Science: links and access, dependable data, public trust, entrepreneurial innovation, plus partnerships. Aims include skilled talent, with AI rollout across farming, health, schooling, mining, finance and government. This National Artificial Intelligence Strategy in Zambia treats data and trust as prerequisites for AI adoption.","date":"2024-11-22","source":"https://www.zambiamonitor.com/zambia-launches-artificial-intelligence-strategy-to-boost-digital-economy/"}]}