Don’t let AI decide what your customers want, businesses told

The useful part

Speaking during Innovation Week Tanzania 2026, Mr Kadyanji said the rapid development of AI-assisted software was changing the economics of starting and running a business. The ability to build something quickly does not necessarily mean there is a market for it. "The problem is that, if you don't have the capital knowledge, AI is very confident," he said.

How it works

• AI can process large amounts of information, but it does not automatically possess the institutional knowledge of how a particular market operates.
• "For a Tanzanian business, that knowledge may include how customers negotiate prices, how informal distribution networks operate, seasonal purchasing patterns or the practic...
• That confidence, he suggested, could become a problem for businesses that lack the expertise to question an recommendation.
• Mr Kadyanji identified four areas where AI still faces limitations in business which include taste, which is the human ability to judge whether something feels right for a particular customer or market.
• "You tell it to create something and it clearly just rushes into creating something that it thought matters to you," he said.

Details worth keeping

While AI can dramatically reduce the time and cost of developing digital products, businesses still need people who understand their customers well enough to determine what they actually need, according to Black Swan Chief Technology Officer Mr Harvey Kadyanji.