The Future is Intelligent: Empowering Future Ready Workforce Through Artificial Intelligence (AI) Education

With the current advancements of automation and robotics, it is expected that AI is going to transform the global economy in an exponential manner. To leverage the new opportunities, there is a need for preparation as well as learning and developing new skills for those new jobs. It is in this regard that Academic City is taking the AI agenda into the forefront, nurturing and empowering the African student to lead the continent into the new AI era. Academic City University College (ACity) is set to lead the sub-region in technology and innovation education with the introduction of an undergraduate degree in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The university becomes the first in Africa to offer a degree in AI. The program, which has commenced already forms part of the university’s short-term effort to develop a cadence of new programs that will invariably push the boundaries of knowledge while establishing a foothold for successful graduates in the jobs of the future. This paper projects the innovative attempt at addressing the manpower challenges in Artificial Intelligence by ACity, Accra, Ghana and her pioneering efforts in the West African sub-region that led to the launch of a new Bachelors Programme in Artificial Intelligence. The programme style and curriculum are presented while also providing perspectives on how the programme fits into the global and African quest to develop skills and strategies to upscale technological advancement as we face an intelligence-driven future. Keywords — Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, BSc, Ghana, Degree, Education, University, UNESCO Journal Reference Format: Longe, O.B., Longe, B-P., Akintunwa, F. & Omotosho, M.O. (2021): The Future is Intelligent: Empowering Future Ready Workforce Through Artificial Intelligence (AI) Education . Journal of Behavioural Informatics, Digital Humanities and Development Research. Vol. 7.No. 2, Pp 181-192. isteams.net. dx.doi.org