On 2 July, CIO South Africa hosted an exclusive dinner at the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town, bringing together senior IT leaders for unfiltered discussions on how AI is being adopted in their companies.
Technology executives from multiple sectors explored how AI is shifting from a simple productivity tool into a fundamental driver of competitive advantage across South African industries at the gathering in the Mother City.
The dinner, supported by CIO South Africa’s executive partner Cassava Technologies, created an environment for candid conversations about AI adoption within the South African context, where skills shortages, data quality gaps and infrastructure constraints determine what it actually takes to be on the right side of emerging technologies.
The evening began with icebreaker questions. When asked about who they would most want to have over for dinner in tech or finance, one attendee responded with, “I will take both. Our new global CIO and finance minister Enoch Godongwana,” noting that she was curious about how each person approached their jobs.
Another attendee shared an earnest wish to connect with his children when asked about the technology he would like to instantly master. “I wish I could master Roblox. My kids play Roblox and I just want to spend time with them but I just don’t get the platform,” the attendee said with a laugh.
How AI is being implemented
The overall theme of the discussions centred around the implementation, governance and adoption of AI within business operations.
“We haven’t treated AI as like some new thing that must be focused on completely separately,” said an attendee, noting that his company had approached AI like it did other technologies that came before.
“We spent a lot of time in the last three or four years working out how to accelerate and build quickly and experiment quickly. Then if it works, scale quickly and if it doesn’t work – then fail it quickly,” he added.
The guest highlighted one example where a small language model (SLM) was built into point-of-sale devices to assist staff with new product launches in case they forgot aspects of the product training.
Another attendee noted that her company looks at AI through two lenses: globally and locally. While their operations are supported globally, locally the company is using AI primarily to enrich its data – specifically focusing on customer product recommendations and determining which promotional campaigns work best.
One guest noted that technology and AI is being embraced and used to its full potential in the agricultural sector and across the supply chain: from farm to fork. “Farmers are adopting AI a lot more in terms of forecasting weather predictability. Is it going to be a sunny day or is it going to be pouring down with rain or is it going to be a storm, because in which case we do not want our irrigation systems to go off,” the guest explained.
The technology is also being used for quality control in terms of spotting abnormalities on the products and across the supply chain. “Traditionally it used to be manual and there are still many houses where that process is manual and you have people standing on that production line sorting by hand. But we are seeing more tech companies coming into the pack house space because that is a critical part of the supply chain – that sorting process.”
AI technology is also being used for temperature control during transportation. “You might be harvesting in Upington in the heat of summer, oranges at 48° and it’s going to China next month. You’ve got to maintain the temperature at let’ s say 5° for that entire value chain until it reaches your consumer”.
Plugging AI into legacy systems
The conversation then shifted to how old brands that have been around for centuries are shifting into a new era. One attendee explained how her company consolidated its regional IT managers into a single global IT organisation to better support its 120 markets.
The company, which historically traded solely at brick-and-mortar sites, has also now extended its reach into the e-commerce space and is beginning to use its data for clearer consumer insights. “There’s now AI agents that you can actually feed data into over time and correct. It can take unstructured data and work with it rather than adopting the old school thinking that data sets must be perfect,” she said.
But the guest also emphasised that regardless of how advanced the processes were, human insight and oversight along the way remains paramount.
Despite these technological advancements, the transition from legacy mindsets remains a hurdle. Attendees spoke of how difficult it was to lead organisational transformation, citing reluctant staff, rigid hiring policies and pressure to win quickly with minimal financial risk.
Addressing unemployment
As a closing point, attendees expressed deep concern over the country’s high youth unemployment rate, noting a stark contrast between the excitement surrounding AI and the reality of rising unemployment rates.
While some businesses are looking at technology purely to cut costs and become more efficient, the attendees shared several practical ways they are actively using technology to address the employment and skills gap.
“Making people more capable by bridging some of the education divide, particularly at the front line. Cashiers and the warehouse. That’s all still a very physical set of roles that AI isn’t really going to take away. But you could make people that much better. You can use the AI to help them through their procedures,” said one guest.
Another executive said she runs a bespoke tech internship that deliberately targets self-taught, non-degreed youth from townships to work on complex cloud engineering projects and retain talent.
A major frustration raised by a few guests was that traditional HR policies often acted as a significant systemic barrier to bringing in young talent. Guests pointed out that while non-degreed youngsters have immense passion and potential, strict HR minimum requirements (such as a matric and higher education qualification) often block these interns from securing permanent roles.
There was also unanimous consensus on the need for affordable infrastructure, such as uncapped fibre in rural communities. One guest shared data insights from a connection project that enabled internet access in far-flung areas. “The data showed that the youth were using tools like ChatGPT to teach themselves practical skills like welding and first aid,” he said.
Another guest supported this, saying that digital access in rural communities helps prevent mass migration to urban cities while empowering the poorest communities to start creating local wealth.
Those in attendance were:
Alden Hardouin, executive: cloud and cybersecurity, Liquid Intelligent Technologies
Andre Stelzner, CDO, City of Cape Town
Aveena Mothilall, director: data and analytics, Twinings
Bridgette Daries, CIO, PPECB
Chris Shortt, CTO, Shoprite
Corlia van Zyl, digital and technology director, Heineken
Eddie Dryden, client executive: retail, Cassava Technologies
Keaobaka Morare, head of group IT strategy and enterprise architecture, office of the CIO and COO, Santam
Kelly Searle-Smith, digital transformation manager, City of Cape Town
Luis Ladera, manager: Latin American business, Cassava Technologies
Narissa Delport, senior writer, CIO South Africa
Nomahlubi Sonjica, community manager, CIO South Africa
Pumie Mphuthi, head of IT, SANPC
Ziaad Suleman, CEO, Cassava Technologies
