When Nigerian filmmakers, writers and musicians gathered at CANEX WKND 2026 in Lagos, one question kept surfacing: does AI actually put more money in the hands of African creatives, or does it simply make other people richer? It is a fair thing to ask. Afreximbank estimates that Africa's creative and cultural industries generate more than $4.2 billion in annual revenue and employ over five million people. The continent's film industry alone brings in $5 billion a year, yet loses roughly $1 billion of that to piracy and inadequate infrastructure. The economics are already complicated before you add artificial intelligence to the picture.
The appeal of these tools is real. AI-assisted editing, animation, visual effects and subtitling can reduce production costs and speed up workflows, which matters enormously in industries where financing and specialised equipment are hard to come by. A 2024 survey cited by DLA Piper Africa found that 35% of stakeholders in Nigeria's film and television industry were already using AI in their work, with another 35% considering it. That is a fast-moving adoption curve, and smaller production companies and independent filmmakers are still figuring out whether they can afford to keep up.
What came through clearly in Lagos, though, is that efficiency is not the whole story. Speakers pushed back on the idea that AI should replace creative authority rather than support it. Technology can sharpen the process of making something, but the imagination, cultural knowledge and judgement that give a film or a song its identity still have to come from somewhere human. The concern is not AI itself but the conditions under which it is adopted, and whether the people doing the actual creating retain meaningful control over the final work.
Distribution and compensation matter just as much. Edward Madongorere of Ceeit made the point that the real challenge for African creatives is not talent or access to tools, it is the systems that decide whether their work is fairly rewarded. Pierrock Chabi of Wakatoon echoed this, arguing that AI-powered business models could improve compensation for creators, but only if the right structures exist to support them. Both were pointing at the same gap: producing more content and earning more from it are two entirely different things.
The conversation about AI and authenticity is already getting noisy, particularly around writers facing allegations that AI wrote their work for them. But collapsing all AI assistance into one accusation misses the point. There is a difference between using a tool to research, edit or brainstorm and outsourcing the creative substance entirely. The more useful question for Africa's creative economy is not whether creatives are using AI, it is whether they own enough of the process, and enough of the value, to build something lasting from it.
Originally published by African Business.