Artificial intelligence is designed to make work easier, not to replace people's jobs. This assertion was made by Arinze Okafor, co-founder of the Namibia Investment and Finance Academy, during the announcement of a new artificial intelligence course.

The three-hour course focuses on identifying platforms and tools that can benefit businesses. Participants will learn to create presentations, generate databases, automate data entry and analysis, and produce reports and impactful content in seconds.

AI is portrayed as a fast and seamless way to complete tasks, shifting the focus from working hard to working smarter. Okafor emphasised that AI is here to improve our world.

"This course aims to demonstrate the practical applications of AI and teach us how to use it to enhance our daily work," he explained. "AI is not here to take your job; rather, it is those who fail to leverage AI who risk losing their jobs. What are the advantages of AI? I like to joke that AI doesn’t consume coffee or take vacations, so you should use it to make your work easier and more efficient."

Okafor argues that AI cannot take anyone's job; instead, it is the person using or operating AI who has that potential. However, he cautioned that AI could have negative impacts if not correctly utilised.

"People have raised concerns about data security, but many of the AI platforms we currently use have built-in data security models," he noted.

While the concept of artificial intelligence has existed for centuries, the term was officially coined in 1956 at the Dartmouth conference.