Capitec group CIO Andrew Baker explains why the bank refuses to stop hiring junior staff in the age of AI, and how it plans to fix everything from ATM queues to camera-shy verification selfies.
Capitec group CIO Andrew Baker has a simple rule for the AI era: never stop hiring young people. While some companies lean towards senior-only teams to avoid the chaos of juniors experimenting with AI tools, Andrew is doing the opposite.
“I want to show young people that they have a future and possibilities,” he says. “With AI, some companies are tempted to only hire senior people because juniors using AI can cause chaos. We are doing the opposite. We are making it safe, and we will never stop hiring.”
For Andrew, AI at Capitec is being used to make sure that nobody gets left behind.
“Our focus on AI is not just to provide a better service for our clients, but to ensure there is a place for everyone in society to join Capitec,” he says.
That inclusive instinct also shapes what keeps him up at night.
“I get anxious if we ever make it difficult for people to join us or use our bank,” Andrew says. “For example, I worry about partially sighted people struggling to take selfies for verification because they cannot see where the camera is. That is something I am going to fix.”
Why the ATM queues persist
Capitec's app is one of the most used in South African banking, yet queues still snake outside its branches. Andrew explains that these queues form at the ATMs, not the tellers, and reflect a much bigger issue: financial exclusion.
“In South Africa, we have a large unbanked population,” he says. “Many people, particularly from rural areas, lack the documentation or formal addresses needed for FICA processes, so they receive cash transfers instead of opening accounts. An ATM is often the only place to collect that money, and many of those queuing use Capitec's Send Cash feature rather than a bank card.”
Capitec has expanded to around 8,000 ATMs, but Andrew is candid that hardware will not solve the problem alone. “We will never fully resolve the ATM queue problem until we allow more people to easily open bank accounts,” he says.
The energy behind the machine
Ask Andrew what gets him out of bed, and the answer starts at home: a cup of tea with his family before the day turns electric. “When I come into work, my brain switches gears,” he says. “I make about 10 phone calls, and the energy at Capitec is unbelievable. It is like holding onto a plasma ball – sparks are flying everywhere.”
That energy, he says, comes from a belief that individual contribution matters. “There is a real belief here that you can make a difference and no one is stopping you. It feels like landing in a family.”
Andrew points to Capitec's work issuing smart IDs for the Department of Home Affairs as an example, a project that is not profitable but solves a real problem for ordinary South Africans.
Leading through winter and what comes after
Andrew's tenure did not start smoothly. A 40-hour outage early on plunged the technology division into what he calls “winter”, a period of roughly 18 months where recovery meant tough, unforgiving leadership.
“In winter, it is hard, and it is acceptable to be a hard leader who does not tolerate substandard work,” he says.
Capitec has since moved through “spring”, stabilising systems and hardening its defences against fraud and cyber threats. Today, Andrew describes a season focused on relationships and calm.
“Our operational energy is close to zero now; our systems heal themselves, like recently recovering from a 30-second outage at 2am,” he says.
That stability, Andrew believes, frees people to think rather than firefight. “For that to happen, people need to be relaxed, to be thinking, and to be using their minds without nervousness or anxiety.”
Following in a legend's footsteps
Capitec has had only three CIOs in its history, a fact Andrew feels the weight of daily. His predecessor, Wim de Bruyn, left a legacy still spoken about with reverence.
“I am not trying to be him, but I hope my contribution to Capitec feels just as good to the people, even if it is different,” says Andrew. “I would love to train people and share my knowledge so that when I leave, there are individuals who know everything I know about certain subjects.”
His ambitions stretch beyond Capitec's own walls. Andrew wants South Africa to build something that can compete internationally, rather than local banks fighting over the same customers.
“I want our products to be internationally competitive, going up against the likes of Revolut,” he says. “It would be great for South Africa to have something globally competitive that was born here, with the people who built it staying here to work on it.”
