Bringing Artificial Intelligence in rural Senegal – How 560 learners – most of them young women – discovered AI and digital skills close to home
From July to September 2025, seven community centers across Senegal quietly turned into gateways to a new world. In Mermoz, Guinguineo, Pire, Tambacounda, Ounck, Foundiougne and Ziguinchor, 560 people – most of them young women and girls – walked into modest rooms with a simple promise: to understand the digital world that was already shaping their lives, but often from afar.
In a country where many communities are rural and opportunities to learn about technology are scarce, the idea was straightforward but ambitious. In partnership with NGO Concept, and within the ITU–Cisco Digital Transformation Centers Initiative, we decided to bring high‑quality digital and AI training directly to local communities.
For many participants, the journey began with the very basics. Some had never created an email address before. The first success of the course was often that small but powerful moment when a participant sent or received an email in her own inbox for the first time. From there, doors started opening quickly. Supported by trainers and assistants, they learned to search the Internet, find learning platforms and navigate the Cisco Networking Academy and HP LIFE websites. Soon, names like “Digital Awareness” and “AI for Beginners” became part of their everyday vocabulary.
Alongside these online courses, we offered our “Introduction to Computer Basics” and an AI module, giving participants a practical way to understand what Artificial Intelligence really is. Instead of hearing about AI as something distant or abstract, they experimented with it directly: trainers asked questions while learners used tools such as Copilot, ChatGPT and Gemini to search, compare answers and see how generative AI could support their studies, work or everyday problem‑solving.
The program placed a strong focus on women and girls (over 60% of participants), many of whom had left school years earlier or were looking for work without having had the chance to build digital skills. They often arrived unsure of their place in the digital economy, but many left with certificates, an email address and – most importantly – a renewed sense of confidence.
Running this program across six regions brought challenges. With slow or unstable internet, even simple online tasks required patience, so trainers relied on offline resources, downloaded content and better timing for connectivity‑heavy activities. The offline design of our course and the HP LIFE app quickly became part of the solution.
Another challenge lay in language and educational gaps. Some learners had not been in a classroom for years, and others were more comfortable in local languages than in French or English, the languages of the platforms.
Trainers therefore not only taught technology, but also translated concepts, simplified explanations and spent extra time with those hesitant to ask questions in public.
By the end of the course, one theme came back again and again: they wanted more. The introduction to digital skills and AI had opened their appetite for learning. For us, this was both a success and a responsibility. It showed that the program worked, but also that it was only the first step.
For many of the 560 participants, those weeks in 2025 did more than teach them how to use email, browse the web or talk to an AI: they marked the moment when technology stopped being distant and intimidating, and became a tool they could use – in their own language, in their own town and on their own terms.
