International audience
This chapter assesses why Zimbabwe's central government has taken long to adopt the artificial intelligence-powered electronic documents and records management system despite its importance in managing records. This is despite the 2017 resolution by the National Archives of Zimbabwe that the country was supposed to implement the electronic system as a necessary condition for the economic, efficient, and effective management of records in the public sector. This qualitative study used the case study of Zimbabwe's central government and solicited data through open-ended interviews and document reviews. Informants were purposively selected because of their active role in the records management function. The chapter revealed that leveraging artificial intelligence technologies in managing records was the way to go, but government bottlenecks and bureaucracies, uncommitted senior management, financial constraints, poor information and communication technology skills, and resistance to change were stumbling blocks. The foregoing threatens the existence of the digital archive in Zimbabwe.