Dharmendra Jain, from Kenya, explores market research in Africa, AI adoption, data quality, localisation and the future of African insights.

Africa cannot be understood as a single market research region.

In this episode of Insights from Elsewhere, Cynthia Portugal speaks with Dharmendra Jain, from Kenya, founder and CEO of Actnable AI, about the cultural, linguistic, operational and commercial differences shaping market research across African countries.

They discuss face-to-face fieldwork, data quality, infrastructure, language diversity and mobile-first consumer behaviours such as WhatsApp communities and social commerce.

Dharmendra also talks about how AI is being used for translation, transcription and qualitative analysis, why human review remains essential, and what research technology companies must do to localise their tools for African workflows and business conditions.

Episode Highlights:

• Why Africa requires country-specific market research strategies rather than a single continental approach.
• How infrastructure, transport, language and face-to-face fieldwork affect research costs, timelines and data quality.
• How operational challenges in Nigeria inspired a platform for fieldwork management, interviewer monitoring and quality control.
• The role of WhatsApp communities, social commerce and mobile-first consumer behaviour in developing new research methodologies.
• Why AI translation, transcription and qualitative analysis still require native speakers and human review.
• How research technology companies can localise their platforms for African workflows, currencies, suppliers and business practices.

About the Guest

Dharmendra Jain is CEO and founder of Actnable AI, based in Kenya. He began his career in market research in India, working across NFO, TNS and Kantar, where he led the Indian Readership Survey. A move into research operations in Nigeria exposed him to fieldwork and data quality challenges, which led him to build custom tools, including a field management system now used by agencies more broadly.

He later shifted from technology user to technology founder, building AI-native research solutions designed around African market workflows rather than adapted from global templates.