Technology

South African businesses are not in the habit of replacing their hardware every year, nor should they be. While IT has evolved into a much more critical component of the modern enterprise, most businesses still have to reconcile their infrastructure needs with the capital they can allocate to it.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) should be embraced, but deception should not be, and South African businesses should understand that Europe’s AI rules may apply even if they have no office in Europe.

As a society, we are rightly asking some important questions about the future of our world. Some of the most important questions relate to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it could impact our lives and livelihoods. They also concern whom and what we trust. Other important questions arise from the changing geopolitical order.

From Ancient Egypt and the Stoics to Rome and Artificial Intelligence, humanity has never stopped asking what lies behind the extraordinary fact that we know we exist

South Africa could spend billions connecting people to the internet and still fail to deliver a truly digital economy. However, municipalities must maintain the infrastructure underneath it. That may sound like an odd claim in an industry obsessed with fibre, spectrum, 5G and data centres. Yet connectivity does not float above the physical world. Fibre needs roads, servitudes, electricity, water, poles, ducts and functioning municipal systems.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has moved quickly from novelty to everyday business infrastructure. It now sits inside email platforms, document systems, customer service channels, finance tools and analytics environments, influencing how decisions are prepared and how work gets done.

Liverpool Football Club (FC) plays in a stadium that holds just over 60,000 people, but its fan base runs into the hundreds of millions. That gap creates a problem the club cannot solve through football alone. While a crowd in a stadium moves together, a global following does not. It spreads across time zones, devices, habits and local gatherings. Each supporter experiences the club in a different way.

If connectivity is now only a fraction of a viable Internet Service Provider (ISP)’s revenue, where does the business go from here, and what should companies be changing to ensure they remain relevant to South Africans? Over the past few years, mobile and fixed connectivity have delivered low to moderate growth for most ISPs.

Financial leaders are now being asked to fund Artificial Intelligence (AI), govern it, and explain the value it creates. This isn't a simple technology question. In banking, it is becoming a test of leadership. AI is starting to influence decisions at the core of the business. These include credit, fraud, pricing, collections, customer engagement, compliance and operational resilience. These decisions affect customers, regulators, shareholders, employees and the institution’s ability to compete.

Attackers aren’t breaking in; they’re being invited, and the invitations are being written by the business. The easiest way to install malware on a business network is to persuade someone inside the business to do it. Attackers don’t always need to bypass the firewall or exploit a zero-day vulnerability. Sometimes, all it takes is a convincing email, a moment of misplaced confidence and trust.