Kenya ranked the world's top user of ChatGPT, beating tech giants like the US, Japan, China
What you need to know:
- ChatGPT, unveiled in November 2022, has taken the world by storm for its natural language processing capabilities. From content creation and code writing to translation and virtual assistance, it’s fast becoming an essential tool in modern workflows.
Nairobi. Kenya has emerged as the world’s number one user of ChatGPT, beating powerhouse economies and tech-savvy nations in a new global report that highlights Africa’s fast-growing appetite for artificial intelligence tools.
According to the latest data from Datareportal, 42.1 percent of Kenyan internet users aged 16 and above used ChatGPT in the past month—ranking the country at the very top globally. This puts Kenya ahead of the United Arab Emirates (42 percent) and Israel (41.4 percent), countries often associated with advanced digital economies.
The report, which sought to measure monthly user interaction with the popular AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, underlines Kenya’s growing digital curiosity and innovation culture—driven largely by a tech-savvy youth population.
South Africa, which placed eighth globally, followed Kenya with 34.3 percent of users engaging with the chatbot. Egypt and Nigeria also made it into the top 20, reinforcing Africa’s rising role in the AI conversation.
In stark contrast, leading economies like Japan (5.8 percent), China (7.3 percent), and Russia (10.8 percent) trailed far behind—underscoring the unexpected global AI adoption map.
ChatGPT, unveiled in November 2022, has taken the world by storm for its natural language processing capabilities. From content creation and code writing to translation and virtual assistance, it’s fast becoming an essential tool in modern workflows.
Kenya’s dominance in ChatGPT use follows yet another recent global ranking that placed the country at the top for social media usage. The CablE UK report showed Kenyans spend an average of 3 hours and 43 minutes daily on social platforms—well above the global average of 2 hours and 23 minutes.
The spike in AI adoption coincides with a wider global shift. A Microsoft-LinkedIn report published last year revealed that 75 percent of global knowledge workers were now using generative AI, with usage nearly doubling within six months.
As digital innovation accelerates across Africa, Kenya’s front-runner status may just be the beginning of a continent-wide AI revolution.
Kenya ranked the world's top user of ChatGPT, beating tech giants like the US, Japan, China
