Zoho says 84% of Nigerian companies enhanced privacy after adopting AI

Zoho, a global technology company, says 84 percent of Nigerian businesses strengthened their privacy measures after adopting artificial intelligence (AI).

The firm announced the findings on Monday at Zoholics Nigeria, its annual user conference held in Lagos, alongside the disclosure that it recorded a 75 percent increase in its customer base in the country in 2024.

The study, conducted by Arion Research on behalf of Zoho, revealed that 93 percent of Nigerian organisations have already begun their AI journey, with more than half moving beyond the experimental stage to full deployment.

It also found that 94 percent of companies have appointed dedicated privacy officers or teams, while 40 percent now allocate over 30 percent of their IT budgets to privacy protection.

Kehinde Ogundare, country head of Zoho Nigeria, said the findings prove that businesses in the country are leading the way in responsible AI adoption.

“This mirrors Zoho’s philosophy of building contextual and privacy-first AI models that can help businesses realise tangible benefits,” Ogundare said.

The report also noted that the financial sector is pioneering the balance between innovation and compliance, representing 29 percent of respondents.

Customer service automation, software development, and marketing optimisation were listed among the top AI use cases.

Despite the progress, the survey identified a lack of technical expertise as the biggest barrier to AI adoption, followed by privacy and security concerns.

Michael Fauscette, chief executive officer of Arion Research, said the Nigerian approach to AI challenges the conventional view that innovation must come at the cost of privacy.

Fauscette added that the high number of organisations that strengthened privacy through AI demonstrates that privacy-conscious design can improve outcomes.