Dr. Olubayo Adekanmbi is a globally respected Artificial Intelligence expert, data scientist, business strategist and innovation strategist, widely acknowledged as one of Africa’s foremost leaders in AI for development. With over 24 years of executive and technical experience, he brings deep expertise in Artificial Intelligence, geospatial data science, digital transformation, and inclusive innovation. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of London (St George’s/City), where his research focused on social consumption using advanced analytics. He also graduated with distinction from the University of Reading and has completed executive education at world-leading institutions, including Columbia Business School, INSEAD, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, ETH Zurich, and the University of Kentucky.
Dr. Adekanmbi is the Founder and CEO of Data Science Nigeria and Co-Founder of EqualyzAI, two pioneering organizations using AI to solve Africa’s most pressing socio-economic challenges. Under his leadership, both organizations have developed transformative AI-powered products, five of which were named in the UNESCO/IRCAI Global Top 100 AI Projects for Social Good. His groundbreaking work in inclusive innovation earned him the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Global Grand Challenge Award for developing Large Language Models that expand financial inclusion—selected among the top 50 out of over 1,300 global submissions.
He is also a leading academic contributor, with multiple peer-reviewed papers published and presented at top-tier global AI conferences including NeurIPS, ICLR, AAAI, CVPR, and ICML. Two of his co-authored works won research excellence awards at ICLR in 2024 and 2025, reinforcing his global stature in advanced AI research. He has played a leading role in national and state-level AI governance initiatives in domains like AI Safety and ethics (UK AI Safety Institute), National AI policy development (Government of Nigeria, Tony Blair Institute), AI for humanitarian intervention (e.g. UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub), AI for development (e.g. The GSM Association – GSMA), AI capacity development ( Google, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia), AI Social good platforms (e.g. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mastercard Foundation) and AI Governance framework development (e.g. Lagos State Government, Edo State Government).
His influence extends across private and public sectors, with previous C-level leadership roles at MTN (Nigeria and South Africa) and Airtel Africa UK, where he led advanced analytics and innovation across 30 African markets, directly impacting over 300 million customers. He was honoured with the MTN Y’ello Manager Award for designing an AI-driven customer risk and value management framework that delivered multi-billion-naira revenue impact. Dr. Adekanmbi currently contributes to several strategic AI and data advisory groups, including the National Artificial Intelligence Policy Expert Group (Nigeria), GSMA’s AI for Development in Africa Advisory Group, Meta’s GenAI Community Panel, Lagos State Innovation and Research Council, African Digital Epidemiology Innovation Network, and Insight2Impact’s Data for Finance Advisory Board (South Africa).
Dr. Adekanmbi is a hands-on data scientist with top global rankings on platforms like Kaggle and Data Science Dojo, and a champion of inclusive capacity development. Through Data Science Nigeria, he has trained over 500,000 young Africans, both online and offline, and authored Africa’s first AI book for children, Beginners Artificial Intelligence and Python Programming for Kids. He is also the author of The Future is Shared, a seminal text on sharepreneurship and the sharing economy in emerging markets.
A true innovator, Dr. Adekanmbi has led the development of award-winning solutions such as Spoton.ng, a geospatial addressing system mapping phone numbers to GPS coordinates, and AI-powered adaptive learning tools for feature phones. His contributions span the full spectrum of AI innovation, from foundational research and product development to public policy and talent development, cementing his reputation as a leading force shaping Africa’s AI future.