Safaricom has revealed that every single employee, regardless of role, was required to complete AI 101 training last year. That means AI literacy is no longer being treated as a specialist skill for engineers and product teams alone, but as a basic workplace capability across the entire business. According to the company, this was about making sure staff are ready for a future shaped by automation, personalisation, and agentic AI.
It’s 2026, and we have reached a point where companies can no longer afford to treat AI like some fancy side project tucked away in the IT department. If a business the size of Safaricom believes everyone needs a working understanding of AI, then this is less about trend-chasing and more about future-proofing the workforce.
Safaricom says the training was delivered through its internal 2+1 learning programme, with staff taking structured technology-focused modules. Business Transformation Lead Maureen Njuguna says 100 percent of employees completed AI 101 so they could build a shared foundation around the technology.
“All our staff, 100 per cent of them, managed to take up AI 101 to have the basic knowledge around AI.”
~ Maureen Njuguna.
The company has also introduced mentorship sessions, communities of practice, experimentation spaces, and workplace tools like Microsoft Copilot to move staff beyond theory and into practical use. Around 600 employees have already taken part in six-month group mentorship sessions.
If you have been following Safaricom’s recent moves, this should not come as a surprise. At Decode 4.0, where Safaricom openly framed 2026 as its “Year of AI”, the company made it clear that AI is central to how it sees its future. That vision has also shown up in the move to host M-PESA on Microsoft Azure, the partnership with iXAfrica around AI-ready data infrastructure, and even the recent Indosat deal involving predictive AI frameworks.
Safaricom also says this AI push goes beyond its own workforce. “One of the key lessons from the recent Decode 4.0 conversations was that the demand for these capabilities goes beyond formal employment. Many young people are looking for ways to build businesses and independent careers using digital skills,” Maureen says. Through partnerships with Microsoft, AWS, TVETs and universities, the company says it is helping build digital skills for the wider economy too. It points to programmes supporting schools, women in technology, and younger learners as part of a longer-term talent pipeline.
For me, this is one of the more useful AI stories Safaricom has shared in a while. Not because it sounds impressive on a stage, but because it shows the company understands that AI adoption is not just about buying tools. It is also about making sure the people expected to work with those tools are not left behind.
