With the recent AI boom, every trending conversation in the global tech space now primarily revolves around AI and how solutions can be built to increase adoption and facilitate innovation.
But behind the screens, away from the big conversations and global headlines, are women, designers, teachers, marketers, writers, and tech founders who are paving their way into Africa’s AI future.
They are the Prompt Queens, women who have learned to speak the new digital language of the age: prompts, data, and generative tools.
“AI felt intimidating at first,” says Uju Opara, a creative writer based in Enugu. “But when I realized it could help me organize my ideas, edit faster, and even generate visuals for my short stories, I knew this wasn’t a threat, it was a partner.”
Across the region, stories like Uju’s are multiplying. From Aba to Asaba, Port Harcourt to Uyo, a quiet network of women is emerging, women who may not call themselves “AI professionals,” but whose daily work and digital lives are being reshaped by artificial intelligence.
A feminine approach to tech adoption
The narrative of Africa’s AI revolution has largely focused on big companies, male founders, and global infrastructure players.
But the grassroots layer, where technology meets creativity and necessity, tells a different story.
In Nigeria’s secondary cities, women are using AI less for coding and more for creation, communication, and commerce. Tools like ChatGPT, Canva’s AI suite, and voice-to-text models have become their silent assistants, helping them design flyers, plan business strategies, create content, or teach online.
“AI has democratized access to digital leverage,” says Chisom Eze, a digital marketer based in Awka. “Before now, you needed a team, a designer, a writer, a strategist. Now, with AI, I can handle it all myself and focus on storytelling and community.”
This quiet efficiency, this blending of technology and intuition, is what many observers now call the feminine edge of AI adoption, one that prizes empathy, aesthetics, and communication as much as logic or data.
A Shift in the AI Story
The South-East and South-South are beginning to develop a unique AI culture, one grounded in practical application rather than hype.
In Uyo, teachers are using AI to grade essays and create lesson plans.
In Aba, fashion entrepreneurs are leveraging Midjourney and Runway ML to visualise fabric patterns before production.
In Asaba, a small but growing cluster of female content creators is using generative tools to scale freelance income for clients abroad.
“The infrastructure may not be perfect here,” says Anwuli Okeke, a media trainer from Port Harcourt, “but the hunger to learn is incredible. Once people see what AI can do, they run with it. It’s like the early days of mobile banking all over again.”
This hunger is creating new pockets of innovation, not funded by venture capital, but by curiosity, necessity, and community learning.
The Barriers Still Standing
Still, there are hurdles.
Access to high-speed internet remains inconsistent across much of the South-East and South-South. Power supply challenges make consistent AI workflows difficult. And because most AI education remains urban and English-dominant, many women learn through self-teaching, trial, and error, rather than structured programs.
Then there’s the perception problem, the fear that AI replaces human creativity rather than enhances it.
“When I first started using ChatGPT, people around me thought I was cheating,” says Adaora Nwokolo, who runs a small social media agency in Onitsha. “But I told them this isn’t cheating; it’s scaling. It’s like having ten interns who never sleep.”
The Rise of AI Sisterhoods
In WhatsApp groups, Telegram channels, and informal community hubs, regional sisterhoods of AI learners are forming.
They share tips, prompts, and projects. Some teach one another how to use tools for marketing, content creation, and personal branding.
These digital circles, often led by women who started with zero technical background, have become safe spaces for exploration and growth.
“We’re not waiting for funding or permission,” says Ijeoma Akpan, who runs an AI learning hub in Calabar. “We’re teaching ourselves, then teaching others. Every woman who learns becomes a bridge for the next.”
Such efforts are small but powerful. They echo the same energy that once birthed Nigeria’s early digital boom, but this time, it’s decentralised and deeply female.
Why It Matters
AI adoption among women in secondary cities may seem like a small wave, but it carries an outsized impact.
These women are not just consumers of technology; they are adapting AI to local realities, from using ChatGPT for customer support in Igbo-infused English to using AI video tools to promote small businesses on Instagram.
They are also shifting the conversation around who gets to build, use, and profit from AI in Africa.
“When we talk about inclusion in AI, it’s not just about having women engineers,” says Eze. “It’s about ensuring that women who run schools, churches, and small businesses also understand what this technology can do for them.”
The Future of AI Belongs to the Curious
The rise of “Prompt Queens” across the South-East and South-South shows that Africa’s AI future won’t just be written by coders or corporate giants. It will be shaped by women who learn fast, teach faster, and build from where they are.
AI, for them, isn’t a distant innovation; it’s a daily companion.
And as they prompt, create, and innovate their way forward, one thing becomes clear: the next great leap in Africa’s digital story may not come from Lagos or Nairobi, but from the quiet brilliance of women prompting from Aba, Asaba, Uyo, and beyond.
Read Also: https://techsudor.com/mapping-ai-readiness-in-nigerias-emerging-cities/
