Tag: AI

During my time working at South African Breweries (SAB), I watched young graduates arrive on the factory floor holding hard-earned chemistry degrees. They possessed brilliant theoretical minds. They understood molecular bonds and complex reactions on paper. Yet, when a critical machine on the production line broke down, those degrees often could not get the line moving again.

Networks that were once little more than pipes are waking up as they prepare for the Artificial Intelligence (AI) token economy. The mobile phone in your pocket is about to get a lot smarter. That is only partly because AI apps will become the new default for search, travel and shopping. However, something bigger is coming. The network itself is waking up.

Resilience and agility are key competitive advantages for companies. CRM is still one of the most reliable ways to activate these qualities. When it comes to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, the conversations are complicated.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, one of the most revolutionary ideas in human history emerged - the corporation. Today, the concept seems entirely ordinary. Companies own assets, enter into contracts, raise capital, employ people, and continue operating long after their founders have passed away.

Customer Experience (CX) outsourcing is entering a new era. For many years, the industry measured success through scale, including seat counts, headcount and cost-per-contact. While those metrics still matter, they no longer define success on their own. Brands expect far more demanding outcomes. They want measurable business impact, stronger trust protection and seamless customer journeys delivered at scale. These expectations are shaping the new rules of CX.

Across Africa’s telecommunications sector, a quiet but decisive shift is underway. Operators are consolidating their technology environments. They no longer treat this as a preference. Instead, they view it as a strategic response to rising costs, growing customer expectations and increasing network complexity.

Most people understand what it means to protect a human identity. The dangers of someone impersonating you online or stealing and cloning your card are immediately obvious. Today, organisations rely on thousands of non-human identities. These identities belong to software applications, cloud workloads, APIs, bots and now AI agents.

South Africa's economic recovery gained credible momentum in 2025. GDP recorded its fifth consecutive quarter of growth in Q4-2025. This pushed the annualised rate to 1.1% for 2025. The Government of National Unity's reform agenda supported this growth. The end of load shedding also contributed. In addition, recovering consumer and business confidence strengthened the outlook.

The cybersecurity landscape is rapidly changing, with hackers increasingly utilising Artificial Intelligence (AI) to carry out sophisticated attacks on their targets. To defend against these AI-driven threats, organisations must adopt data protection solutions that harness AI, essentially “fighting fire with fire”. This is the foundation of using AI to protect data from cybercriminals.

Two overarching themes are likely to dominate the investing landscape over 2026 and beyond - the unstoppable rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the changing global order. These subjects are complex and dynamic. It is impossible (and unwise) to form a fully-fledged thesis. More important than knowing the terrain is having the right attitude to traverse it.