How Can Zimbabwe Higher Education Navigate The Ai Paradox Through Challenges Opportunities and Strategies For Inclusive Implementation?

The surge of artificial intelligence created an increased demand for technologies and internet services for utilization of AI services in Higher and Tertiary Education Institutions (HTEIs). While the AI’s inclusive promise is realized in the developed world, in Africa the social, technological and economic landscape spells out disproportionate benefits for students from diverse backgrounds. This research weighed the benefits and challenges of AI usage for HTE in Zimbabwe, utilising a desk review of literature and interviews with 10 education experts in Zimbabwe. Two opposing theories, the Technological Leapfrogging Theory and the Inclusive Innovation Theory guided the data gathering and data analysis processes. Manual data analysis methods involving content analysis, a systematic literature review and coding were applied to uncover the thematic findings from the data. The research findings showed that in Africa, the benefits of AI are outweighed by its challenges, owing to social, economic and technological challenges that still persist in some African countries, among others. Evidence based recommendations that are tailored to the unique circumstances of some African were proffered as context specific AI solutions to the obtaining challenges and hindrances to AI implementation in Africa.