Artificial intelligence (AI) has quietly landed in Burundi — no visa, no announcement. In offices, some call it a job thief; others use it to sound more intelligent in emails. Between fear and fascination, one thing is clear: the problem is not AI itself, but how we use it.
“Writing an article and then asking AI to polish it is like washing a shirt and ironing it afterwards”, said Emery, a Burundian journalist in a WhatsApp debate. The shirt is already clean — the iron simply makes it presentable. A journalist who drafts their work and uses AI to refine grammar, structure, or style is not cheating. They remain responsible for the content, but rely on technology to improve the form.
This is the purpose of AI: to complete tasks more efficiently. Rather than replacing thought, it frees up time for reflection, creativity, and debate. Used responsibly, it sharpens the very skills education is meant to develop.
Burundi’s quiet adopters
From tech start-ups to agriculture, coding labs to human resources offices, Burundians are finding their own ways to make AI useful.
A young company, Advanced IT Research, consists largely of university students who use AI daily to accelerate coding projects and test new ideas. Its director, half-jokingly, admits, “If I fail to earn at least 100,000 Burundian francs a day with ChatGPT, the fault is mine”. For his team, AI is not a passing trend but the engine of their work. Prisca, an IT specialist at Advanced IT Research, adds, “We use AI to help us correct certain syntax — it knows many of them”.
Armel Akimana, a robotics engineer, puts it simply, “these platforms help me research faster and more precisely than traditional search engines. In programming, they generate code ten times quicker, though you always have to verify the results”. He notes that robotics, too, is advancing, “with a camera, a robot can tell one plant from another. I’ve already tested that kind of application”.
Other companies are following suit. At Casameza, a HR agency, the CEO tells her team: “Use AI wherever you can, and do only what you alone can do”. Instead of spending hours revising proposals or preparing presentations, employees now use AI to polish drafts. The company is even testing AI tools for CV screening, cutting down the time once spent manually sorting applications.
Innovation is also emerging in agriculture
AgriHyphen AI, an application developed by students from the University of Ngozi, uses artificial intelligence to detect crop diseases with 94% accuracy, the team reports. It allows farmers to diagnose problems early and reduce yield losses by providing tailored treatment options for each disease. The team, made up of economists, agronomists, and computer scientists, believes this technology could be seminal, particularly for farmers.
Elie Bubuya, project leader of AgriHyphen AI, represented Burundi at the Paris Open Source AI Summit in February 2025. “Artificial intelligence is a global revolution, and Africa must act now to be a player, not a bystander,” he warns. According to Bubuya, investing in technological infrastructure, electricity, and internet access will empower Burundian youth to innovate locally and reduce dependence on foreign technologies.
AgriHyphen AI aims to transform agriculture and other sectors through the responsible use of AI, strengthening food security and expanding access to advanced tools. For Bubuya, attending the Paris summit was more than symbolic. It was a chance to learn, connect, and bring home ideas that could shape Burundi’s digital future.
An assistant, not a master
The healthiest way to view AI is as an assistant. It can suggest, polish, summarise, or translate. The responsibility for checking accuracy, adding nuance, and making judgements remains with the human user. Blind reliance is as unwise as blind rejection.
Critics too often frame AI as an enemy of education, with enthusiasts treating it as a saviour. Like the calculator or the typewriter in earlier generations, it is neither. AI is a tool, its impact depends on how it is used. AI can encourage laziness if misused, but if integrated carefully, it raises the quality and speed of human work.
Preparing for tomorrow
The world is moving at a rapid pace. In Burundi, many people are forced to take on several jobs to survive, studying and working at the same time to make ends meet. In this reality, AI can offer much-needed support. The road ahead for academia is about balance. Schools must rethink how they grade, and teachers should stop fearing AI. Starting by showing students how to use it well, whilst students must resist the “copy-paste” and use their own ideas, with AI only to assist and sharpen.
It is most important that leaders also have clear priorities, so access to AI does not become another way of dividing those who are connected and those left behind. Or they risk allowing the digital gap to grow exponentially wider.
