The Next Chapter: Where Will You Be in Five Years? – With Anjolaoluwa Ajayi (The Data Princess)

What are your top five AI tools and how do you use them?

My top AI tool, of course, is ChatGPT—it’s definitely at the top of the list. I use it for a lot of things: drafting quick emails, brainstorming for practically everything, and generally improving my productivity.

Then there’s Gemini, which I use when I want to do more creative work, because I feel Gemini has a very human and creative touch. I also use Gemini for most of the AI applications I build. So beyond productivity, I rely on it for developing solutions. Gemini is really my go-to model.
Next is Canva AI. As a founder, I have to prepare many proposals for different purposes—whether reaching out to schools, professional bodies, potential partners, or applying for grants. Canva AI helps me speed up that process and make my work look polished.
I also use Perplexity AI, because I’m naturally curious and I love getting detailed, well-structured answers to any question I have. Perplexity shines when it comes to research, so it’s my go-to tool for that.

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Finally, there’s a tie between Claude and Copilot. Copilot is already integrated into my development environment, which makes coding smoother, while Claude runs on the browser, so I use it for debugging and anything technical. Essentially, Claude and Copilot are my coding companions.

So, those are my top five AI tools.

Who are the top five people you look up to in your career?

At the very top of the list is Andrew Ng. Many, including myself, regard him as the father of modern machine learning because he created the leading machine learning courses online—particularly the Machine Learning Specialisation on Coursera. It’s practically a rite of passage for anyone who wants to become an AI or machine learning engineer. He explains concepts in a very clear and approachable way, and I’ve looked up to him for a long time.

Next is Matt Chapman, a data scientist and AI writer on Medium. I’ve been following his publications since 2022, and they’ve been a big influence on me.

Third is Cassie Kozyrkov (I hope I pronounced her name correctly). She was the very first decision scientist at Google. I’ve admired her for a long time, and she’s one of the people I aspired to be like when I was starting out.

Closer to home, there’s Samuel Abolo. He and I worked together as lead and co-lead for the Google Developer Group Data Track at Babcock University. He’s a very talented data scientist and software engineer, and someone whose journey inspires me deeply.

Finally, there’s DMA from EY. She was one of the data professionals I worked with during my time at Ernst and Young, and I learnt so much from her mentorship.

So, those are the five people I look up to in the tech field.

Visit the EduTimes Africa YouTube channel to watch this highly inspiring and fun interview in full.

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ANJOLAOLUWA AJAYI
Anjolaoluwa Ajayi is a First-Class Computer Science graduate who graduated top of her class from Babcock University and she’s the founder of Acad AI, an innovative exam‑grading platform that helps teachers create and grade theory exams faster while giving detailed feedback to students. It’s already being used by lecturers at Babcock University, Caleb University, Obafemi Awolowo University and even outside of Nigeria.

She is widely known as the “data princess,” thanks to her extensive experience in data analytics, data science, AI, and machine learning. Formerly an AI & data consultant at EY, one of the Big Four firms, Anjolaoluwa now serves as a data analytics writer at Vidi Corp, a top consulting firm in the UK, where she merges her love for data with her passion for writing.
Anjolaoluwa is also a respected voice on Medium, contributing to top publications such as AI Advances, Level Up Coding, Data Driven Investors, and Code Like a Girl. There, she reaches over 5,000 monthly readers and has grown a personal following of over 2,000 data and AI enthusiasts.

She holds two Microsoft certifications in data analytics and data science, and is also a Google-certified ML Engineer.

Beyond tech, Anjolaoluwa is a passionate writer, a curious traveller, a strong believer in God, and someone who loves trying new things. In her free time, she enjoys writing stories and spending time with family and friends.
She is committed to making data and AI more accessible through education, writing, and innovation.

Website: https://acadai.co

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/acad-ai/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acad__ai/