Ravi Bhat, chief AI solutions officer at Microsoft South Africa, speaks to CIO South Africa about the rise of AI agents, the role of CIOs in driving change and what organisations that win in 2026 will look like.
CIO South Africa spoke to Microsoft chief AI solutions officer Ravi Bhat at the Johannesburg leg of the Microsoft AI Tour about how AI agents are set to reshape South African businesses. He also highlighted early successes local organisations are seeing with agentic AI adoption. Beyond business impact, Ravi stressed the importance of investing in AI skills, particularly for youth who will lead the next generation of enterprises.
Q: How do you see AI agents changing core business operations in South Africa over the next 12 to 18 months?
A: At Microsoft, we talk about the idea of the frontier firm. These are organisations that adopt AI across four areas: people, processes, customers and products.
The journey usually starts with AI as an assistant. Then it moves to humans working with agents. The next step is humans guiding multiple agents that work together to deliver outcomes. In the agentic world, many business processes run autonomously, guided by human goals.
In South Africa, we estimate AI diffusion at around 20 to 21 percent. There are strong examples already. Sars is using AI agents on top of eFiling. Capitec is using agents across banking operations. These are no longer simple chatbots or copilots, they are systems that drive real business outcomes.
Without agents, the productivity gains from AI are limited, and ROI is harder to justify because AI adoption requires cultural change. Agents are different in that they show revenue growth, cost reduction, new products and better customer satisfaction. Some organisations are already seeing changes in their balance sheets and brands.
Capitec, for example, has about 770 agents running across the bank. Adoption is strong, and the growth potential is still very large.
Q: What can CIOs do to get their people on board and bring them along on this journey?
A: The most important point is that AI is not just a technology journey. It is an organisational journey.
CIOs need business leaders, boards, executives and all functions involved. The way people work in HR, marketing, finance, sales and service will change. People will not change because the CIO tells them to. They will change because their work environment changes, and AI helps them adapt.
Technology will be an enabler, not the driver. The driver is business outcomes powered by AI and CIOs need to connect those outcomes to how people work every day.
Roles will change, but that is not the main issue. The key is that culture change cannot be outsourced to IT. CIOs must take their business peers with them. Becoming a frontier firm requires leadership across the entire organisation.
Q: What will define organisations that win in 2026, especially in the AI arena?
A: Culture change starts at the top with curiosity. Curiosity to learn, to change, and to understand what is happening in the world.
Second is skills. Organisations need basic skills in AI and cybersecurity, and then advanced skills in both. As soon as you move into AI, you must be secure and responsible. That includes data protection, responsible model training and aligning AI to business context.
Third, organisations must adopt AI across all four areas: people, customers, processes and products. Giving employees copilots is useful, but limited. When that AI is connected to enterprise data and used to improve customer outcomes, the value increases and when it changes business processes and operations, the value grows further. The real advantage emerges when it reshapes products and go-to-market strategies.
Many organisations in South Africa are already doing this, especially in banking while manufacturing and public sector organisations are making progress. If leaders are not on this journey now, they risk being left behind.
Q: Which industries are best positioned to benefit first from AI agents?
A: Retail is seeing strong growth because of high customer interaction and the need for fast decision-making. AI helps with pricing, offers and supply chain optimisation.
Telcos are also benefiting through faster customer engagement and personalised offers. Professional services firms are seeing major gains, especially in software development, project delivery and solution design. AI is now generating code, websites and applications, which improves speed and agility.
The public sector is also progressing. Sars is a strong example, with AI rolled out to all 14,000 employees. Financial services continue to lead because of skills depth and data availability while education is also changing rapidly.
Q: What practical steps can African organisations take to scale AI quickly without increasing risk?
A: First is learning. Everyone from developers and administrators to architects and consultants needs to understand AI tools and how to work with them.
Second is cybersecurity. As more systems and data connect to AI, organisations must protect their data, systems and brands.
Third is governance and responsible AI. Organisations must focus on fairness, access control, accountability, security and inclusion. Responsible AI is not optional, it is foundational.
Q: What lessons can African enterprises learn from global leaders in AI adoption?
A: The biggest lesson is that advantage does not come from manufacturing chips or building models. It comes from adoption.
There is still a gap between the global north and south. Adoption in the north is around 24 to 25 percent, and in the south closer to 15 percent. But countries and organisations in the global south can move faster if they focus on diffusion.
AI adoption requires infrastructure, policy, software access, security, electricity, power and cooling. Governments and organisations must address these basics.
The UAE has the highest diffusion rate in the world and manufactures no chips. Singapore is second. Their success comes from strong government vision, AI policy, infrastructure investment, and removing barriers like power constraints. This has driven GDP growth.
Countries and organisations that focus on diffusion, not production, will benefit from AI faster.
