After exiting the content moderation business, Sama has now revealed plans to hire and train 2,000 young Kenyans to work on computer visioning.
The company which was Facebook’s content moderation partner in Africa exited content review services in January this year to focus on data annotation, a market it has equally dominated. The move saw Sama release about 3% of its workforce, most of them from its moderation hub in Nairobi
The new hires the firm says will work on progressive AI projects outsourced to it by several Fortune 500 Companies.
“Through this initiative, we are not only creating employment opportunities for Kenyan youths but also ensuring that Kenya plays a significant role in shaping the future of AI development. Together, we’re fostering innovation, creating opportunities, and building a brighter future where Kenyan talent fuels the global AI revolution,” Sama Vice President, Global Service Delivery Annepeace Alwala said during the training commissioning.
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The 2,000 new Sama employees will be trained in computer vision and data labelling services, a field that is in high demand by AI developers and Machine Learning (ML) engineers globally. They will work on various projects, including labelling images and videos for machine learning algorithms as part of upstream AI data building.
The first 600 participants in Nairobi have already been hired and are currently undergoing training. The remaining 1,500 participants will be hired in the coming weeks. The new cohort will join Sama’s dynamic team of over 3,000 staff in Nairobi to work on computer vision AI projects for some of the leading global companies.
Participants will also receive soft skills training on topics such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving.
Sama has been operating in Kenya for the last 15 years. The company continues to provide quality formal jobs for Kenyans, providing value chain AI solutions for self-driving cars, virtual reality gaming consoles, fashion segmentation, and agricultural solutions for crop disease protection.
“In Kenya, thanks to quality talent, Sama is today a key player in the data annotation market, providing best-in-class computer vision data labelling services. These services are delivered under the Sama data curation, annotation and validation business lines, which we deliver for more than 25% of Fortune 50 companies that trust Sama to help them deliver industry-leading machine learning models,” Alwala noted.
