Guiding South Africa Toward an AI-Driven Era: urgently, executives must take action!
South African business leaders are urging decisive action to position the country as a regional leader in artificial intelligence (AI), driving innovation, economic growth, and social inclusion. The focus is on modernising digital foundations, developing AI-ready talent, and implementing responsible AI practices.
**Modernising the Digital Foundation**
To accelerate AI-driven digital transformation, business leaders are partnering with global technology companies such as Huawei to invest in cloud and AI-native infrastructure. This includes leveraging AI cloud services that support advanced AI models and enable interconnected computing resources for scalable and efficient AI deployment. Additionally, local data infrastructures are being developed to support AI innovation, ensuring data sovereignty and privacy, crucial for sustained AI development and ethical use.
**Developing and Upskilling Talent for AI Readiness**
Addressing the significant AI skills shortage is a priority. This involves redesigning youth and workforce training programs to focus on AI readiness, rather than traditional coding alone, emphasising skills that match the evolving AI landscape, especially in agentic AI (autonomous systems that plan and adapt independently). Collaboration with educational institutions and industry is crucial to create curricula and hands-on programs that equip students with AI competencies aligned with market needs. Empowering youth through targeted initiatives is also essential to build a sustainable AI talent pipeline.
**Implementing Responsible and Inclusive AI**
Business leaders are championing AI systems that are transparent, fair, and accountable, aligning with the African Development Bank’s vision of AI supporting inclusive and sustainable development. Cross-sector collaboration is being promoted to ensure AI adoption supports broad socio-economic goals, balancing innovation with societal impact considerations. Collaboration with policymakers is also vital to create adaptive governance frameworks that foster AI innovation while mitigating risks related to privacy, bias, and job displacement.
Leaders must consider how AI can help deliver better healthcare outcomes, safer transport systems, more responsive government services, stronger agriculture, and food security. The immediate concern is not whether to participate in AI but how to ensure the country adapts and leads in a way that delivers value, protects digital foundations, and includes its people in the transformation.
To address the skills gap, leaders should focus on building pipelines for talent development, starting at the base, including working with educational institutions and committing to large-scale reskilling programs. Leaders must redesign their organisations to support experimentation, decentralised problem-solving, and rapid feedback loops. The demand for "Star-shaped" skills, a blend of deep expertise, broad capabilities, and a growth mindset, is increasing due to the rise of AI.
Junaid Kleinschmidt, the Intelligence lead for Accenture, Africa, emphasises the need for South African leaders to prioritise AI as a national economic and developmental priority, beyond automation and operational efficiency. With approximately 55% of South Africans having used GenAI at least once, and the rise of AI expected to displace jobs in the coming years, it is crucial that leaders act now with clarity, collaboration, a sense of national purpose, vision, courage, humility, foresight, and an ethical backbone.
- South African leaders are seeking partnerships with global technology firms like Huawei, investing in cloud and AI-native infrastructure to fuel AI-driven digital transformation.
- To combat the AI skills shortage, youth and workforce training programs are being revised to emphasize AI readiness, focusing on skills required in the evolving AI landscape, including agentic AI.
- Business leaders are advocating for transparent, fair, and accountable AI systems, aligning with the African Development Bank’s vision of AI promoting inclusive and sustainable development.
- Leaders must consider how AI can contribute to better healthcare, safer transport, responsive government services, robust agriculture, and food security.
- To address the looming skills gap, leaders should prioritize pipelines for talent development, collaborate with educational institutions, and commit to large-scale reskilling programs.
- As AI is expected to displace jobs in the coming years, Junaid Kleinschmidt, the Intelligence lead for Accenture, Africa, urges South African leaders to prioritize AI as a national economic and developmental priority, demonstrating clarity, collaboration, a sense of national purpose, vision, courage, humility, foresight, and an ethical backbone.
