Shalendra joins the list of IT leaders competing for an award on 15 November.
Shalendra Singh, head of IT at Hungry Lion, recently spoke at a CIO South Africa Summit in Cape Town in a panel discussion on AI and its impact in the retail sector alongside former retail CIO Chris Shortt.
According to Shalendra, the biggest obstacle with AI is managing people’s perceptions about it and fears around it taking their jobs. “Ideally, AI should add value, and to a certain extent be a partnership between the technology and the people,” he says, “adding value to the business as a whole, while maintaining the human aspect, and people embracing it rather than fearing it.”
He highlighted that it’s not about AI necessarily taking people’s jobs, but forging a [or rather there should be] a symbiotic relationship between your staff and various AI and machine learning models.
Always eager to learn and upskill himself, Shalendra is currently pursuing his dream of becoming a full stack software developer. “The intensive coding course that I have recently completed, including other online courses, have given me the ideal footing to enter this industry. My previous career in IT has given me unique insight into business systems, business needs and processes that will aid me in my future role. I am committed, skilled and hard-working.”
Prior to joining Hungry Lion, Shalendra was head of IT operations at Shoprite. He is also an independent non-executive director at Digicloud Africa.
Shalendra completed his qualification as an electronics engineer: computer systems from the Durban Institute of Technology. He has also participated in project management and leadership programmes with institutions such as Unisa and the Gordon Institute of Business Science.
