Somali language tech exists

The force

For years, computers barely understood Somali. That is changing quickly, because AI tools got cheaper and Somali universities and companies started building their own.

What exists now

• Caaqil (Hormuud Telecom). An AI question-and-answer service in Somali on health, farming, school, money and general knowledge. It works by SMS: dial *1000# and send a question to 1000. No internet or smartphone is needed (Garowe Online). User numbers are not published.
• NaMaqal (Shaqodoon). Somali speech-to-text used by UN agencies, the Danish Refugee Council and World Vision. The platform it grew from received 1,500 to 3,000 calls a day. Its accuracy on Maay is about 40% (TechCabal).
• SAIL lab (Jamhuriya University). Released a Somali language model in March 2024 (SAIL) and in April 2026 a Somali model that detects false news, reported at 98% accuracy (Dawan).
• SIMAD University launched OGAAL, a Somali and English assistant for student services, in September 2026 (Dawan).
• SOMA-S1. A small Somali language model trained from scratch and released under an open licence (Hugging Face).
• Open speech models for Somali are published online (Hugging Face).
• A national AI centre opened at Somali National University in July 2026 (Intelligent CIO).

Outside the country

World tools are adding African languages too. Meta's MMS covers speech for more than 1,100 languages, though its licence bars commercial use (InfoQ). Google's free Gemma 3 model was trained on more than 140 languages (Google). These give Somali builders a base to start from instead of building everything alone.

Policy

The National Communications Authority held its second AI Summit in June 2026, with Somali-language AI on the agenda; no policy was announced (NCA).

The gaps

Live Somali AI is real but thin. None of these products publishes user numbers. Maay, one of Somalia's two official forms of Somali, is much less covered than Maxaa-tiri.

What it means for young Somalis

The first Somali language tools have been built by Somali students, universities and companies. The language of 20 million people is entering the age of AI, and young Somalis are the ones building it.