45.3% of Zimbabwean Entities are Currently Using AI” – Potraz

The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) presented crucial insights into the country’s technological landscape during its Annual General Meeting (AGM), highlighting significant developments and ongoing challenges in artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, digital literacy, blockchain maturity, and child online protection.

According to the research findings shared under POTRAZ’s Research and Development initiative, 45.3% of Zimbabwean entities are currently using AI technology. Organizations report leveraging AI primarily to enhance operational efficiency (89%), improve decision-making support (67.1%), and elevate customer experience (67.1%).

However, rapid AI integration faces notable headwinds, a 61.2% skills gap stands as the top constraint, closely followed by infrastructure limitations (58.2%) and budgetary bottlenecks (58.2%).

 The presentation also underscored a critical gap in digital skills across the nation. Zimbabwe’s Digital Literacy Index currently stands at 37.26%, falling below the United Nations benchmark of 50%.

Meanwhile, blockchain integration maturity sits at 5.98%, signaling an early-stage adoption phase for decentralized ledger technologies. Despite these structural hurdles, overall client satisfaction with ICT regulatory services remains robust at 71.4%.

In agriculture, a key study surveyed 3,123 farmers and 287 agribusinesses across 8 provinces, confirming that the adoption of ICT gadgets directly yields higher crop outputs, increased farm incomes, and stronger market participation.

Looking ahead, POTRAZ highlighted additional 2025 research outputs focusing on social impact and child welfare. These include evaluation studies on Community Information Centres (CICs) alongside dedicated journal papers investigating children’s online risk awareness and child online safety paired with parental intervention strategies.

The Authority reaffirmed its commitment to evidence-based policy formulation to bridge the digital divide and safeguard young users in an increasingly connected nation.