The Kenyan Metaverse community has unveiled the second edition of the African AI and Metaverse summit in Nairobi.
The summit, which was unveiled on Friday by the Meta Meta club, attracted 300 participants.
It aimed to unpack how AI and the metaverse will transform businesses since the world is on the verge of experiencing a paradigm shift.
Some of the sectors set to experience the shift include marketing, customer experience, product development and automation.
This is in addition to banking, manufacturing, education, fintech, fashion, telecommunication, real estate and entertainment.
KCA deputy VC Vincent Onywera said the summit brought experts from AI, IoT and robotics to showcase technologies used in the world.
He said the forum will give students a chance to learn and share knowledge on best practices.
“AI has become part and parcel of our lives and we cannot run away from it. Through metaverse, we can try to solve challenges we are facing in the health, food security, or even education sectors through a virtual world,” Onywera said.
“We are very pleased and happy to be hosting the AI metaverse summit as a build-up to the KCA University second innovation week that will be taking place next week.”
The first edition of the event was held in October 2022 but was Kenyan-focused.
Meta Meta Club worked with partners from Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa to hold this year's summit.
Meta Meta club founder Matthew Munyao said this year's participation was better than last year's, despite many countries not showing up.
Munyao also said they had to work hard to facilitate the summit.
“The financial support has not been up there as this is still a very new concept. But what drives me is I have worked with brands and other partners from different countries who already see the vision,” he said.
“Even if Kenyans do not appreciate it now, it does not mean they do not want it. It just means it will take time for them to catch up.”
Munyao said some of the sponsors they got did not commit to funding the event upfront.
“We are lucky to have an in-house team experienced in areas such as social media, graphic design, and building the Metaverse world. This has enabled us to deliver on a small budget,” he said.
Munyao said they raised $1,500 (Sh225,675) and $2,000 (Sh300,900) in funding in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
The summit showcased Extended Reality projects such as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality.
Panel discussions were also held both physically and virtually in the metaverse space.
Munyao is also the founder of Virtual is Real which is a VR, XR metaverse gaming studio based online in Nairobi.
He said through AI and the metaverse, he was allowed to dream, create a whole new world to come up with solutions and do things in simulation.
Munyao said he founded the Meta Meta club in 2022 having joined the metaverse himself in 2021.
He said after joining, he realised there were no Africans in the space and this presented an opportunity to venture in the space.
“I started both communities online around the time when I was learning more about cryptocurrencies and NFTs,” he said.
“I got to learn about Wearables, special NFTs, that are metaverse clothing and avatars that can be owned.”
“Being in the space, I was completely mindblown and I ended up being part of Metaverse and became the first Kenyan to create the Kenyan Metaverse summit,” Munyao said.
He said it it time Africa played catchup and immersed itself in the metaverse space.
“There is a lot we can do in the metaverse space and with AI. I usually believe that we live in the best times in history,” Munyao said.
“Today, information is pretty much readily available, even a grade 8 pupil can come up with a solution and use these technologies to advance the idea.”
He urged Kenyans to take the initiative to co-create a future, which has no entry barriers.
“As long as you can read and write, you have internet access and you can use a laptop, you are more than capable to use and operate AI just like anybody else. I do not see a reason why we should not be exploring these opportunities,” Munyao said.