FROM THE CEO
AI has become the easiest subject in business to have an opinion about and the hardest to have a plan for. The change is however happening in real time, and this is why it matters now.
The article below sets out four disciplines; the one I’d underline is people, because in this province the exposure is concentrated in exactly the entry-level roles that have been our best route into formal employment.
The productivity case is real, and governance is essential, however, AI is an employment concern before it is anything else. Research indicates that companies are not only retrenching, they’re also not hiring for the entry-level jobs that AI now handles so well. AI capability is rapidly becoming a key attribute for job seekers at all levels.
Which is why the partnership between ACT and the Forvis Mazars Institute of Development (FMID), featured below, matters. The ask in this edition is not applause. If your organisation can commit to placements, please tell us. We have developed a cohort of fully funded learners being trained on the most critical AI competencies but a training pipeline without an offtake is just a certificate.
FOCUS ISSUE
AI: Everyone Is Adopting. Few Are Gaining.
The debate about whether AI will matter to your business is over. The harder question is why so many have adopted it and yet so few can point to anything it has changed.
The organisations seeing real returns are rarely the ones spending most. They have been disciplined about four things.
Start narrow enough to measure. The most successful AI initiatives are usually the least ambitious. They take one process (such as invoice capture, first-line customer queries, drafting standard contracts, or demand forecasting) and establish what it currently costs in hours and errors, then test whether the technology beats that. Organisations that skip the baseline accumulate a portfolio of pilots nobody can evaluate, and nobody will cancel.
Treat governance as infrastructure, not as a brake. Data privacy, bias, intellectual property, security, and accountability for decisions a system made are leadership questions, not IT questions. In South Africa they also carry legal weight. POPIA already governs how personal information may be processed, whether or not a machine is doing the processing. The draft National AI Policy is being reviewed, with government signalling a sector-specific, multi-regulator approach rather than a single AI Act. Organisations setting internal rules now around what data may be used, what a human must sign off, and what must be disclosed, will be well placed when that lands, rather than scrambling. Organisations without an AI policy are the ones where staff are already pasting sensitive information into tools nobody approved.
Recognise that the jobs question is a skills question. Much of the public conversation has been about job losses. The evidence so far points somewhere more demanding: tasks are being automated and roles rebuilt. As routine work is absorbed, the premium shifts to judgement, problem-solving, communication, and the ability to supervise a system’s output rather than produce it.
For this region, anchored by a professional services economy, that is not abstract. By example, roughly 100,000 Western Cape jobs sit in business process services. This sector added around 11,000 roles last year and has been one of our few pipelines at scale moving young people into formal employment. It is also built substantially on exactly the routine, entry-level work AI absorbs first. Whether that pipeline survives depends far less on the technology than on how quickly those roles are redesigned and those workers reskilled.
Move before you feel ready. Waiting for the technology to settle is a reasonable instinct but potentially an expensive one. Capability is compounding, and so is the organisational learning that comes from use. The distance between a firm that started experimenting eighteen months ago and one starting now is not a software gap. It is a gap in people who know what the tools are bad at, workflows already rebuilt, and governance already tested.
None of this needs a large budget or a transformation programme. It needs one problem worth solving, measured honestly; rules set before the rollout rather than after the incident; and investment in the people who will have to work differently. AI will not deliver advantage to organisations that adopt it. It will deliver advantage to the ones that change how they work.
Question for members: Which single process would you be willing to measure honestly, before and after – and what is stopping you from starting this month?
MEMBERSHIP SPOTLIGHT
Strengthening the Network
AI & Digital Futures Academy: Securing Future Talent
As artificial intelligence reshapes the workplace, access to the right skills is becoming a key competitive advantage.
Through the AI & Digital Futures Academy, a partnership between Accelerate Cape Town (ACT) and the Forvis Mazars Institute of Development (FMID), members can connect with learners developing practical AI, digital, and future workplace capabilities.
The programme provides ACT members with access to emerging talent equipped to support research, data analysis, productivity, process improvement, and innovation initiatives, while helping organisations build capability for the future. The training and stipends are largely covered already, and these learners are available to organisations able to absorb them.
Members interested in engaging around the AI & Digital Futures Academy learners are encouraged to contact the ACT team.
Member Spotlight: In conversation with …
Judy Robison, Managing Director, Forvis Mazars Institute of Development (FMID)
What is the biggest opportunity facing the Western Cape?
The Western Cape has the potential to become one of Africa’s leading hubs for future-ready talent. We have strong educational institutions, innovative businesses, a growing technology ecosystem and a willingness to collaborate. The opportunity is to connect those strengths more deliberately and create clearer pathways from education into skills development, work experience and employment. If we get that right, skills development becomes an economic growth strategy.
What keeps you awake at night?
The possibility that technology moves faster than our ability to prepare people for it. AI is already reshaping roles, skills and workplaces. My concern is not access to technology itself, but whether people have the skills, confidence and opportunities needed to participate meaningfully in the economy it is creating. We cannot afford a future where a relatively small group becomes significantly more productive through AI while others are left further behind. Digital and AI capability needs to become increasingly accessible, practical and connected to real workplace opportunities.
What’s the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned?
You don’t have to have all the answers, but you do need to create the conditions for people to find them together. Some of the most impactful initiatives I’ve been part of have come through collaboration across organisations and sectors. Leadership today is increasingly about bringing the right people together around a shared purpose and then turning conversation into action.
What excites you most about AI?
Its potential to democratise capability. AI can give people access to knowledge, creativity, coaching and problem-solving tools that were previously difficult or expensive to access. What excites me most is not the technology itself, but what becomes possible when AI is combined with human potential. For the Western Cape, that’s a remarkable opportunity; not just to participate in the AI revolution, but to help shape it.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
Cape Town’s Foreshore Vision
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has unveiled plans to transform Cape Town’s unfinished freeways into a new transport link, public spaces and a vibrant mixed-use precinct, including affordable housing . The project has the potential to unlock investment, improve connectivity and reshape the future of the city’s CBD for decades to come.
Artist’s impression of the Foreshore Precinct Project at night. Image: City of Cape Town
NUMBER OF THE WEEK
1
One opportunity can change a career.
One of the most effective ways to build future-ready talent is through exposure to real workplaces, real projects and real business challenges. Initiatives such as the ACT and FMID partnership aim to help bridge the gap between learning and earning while creating value for employers.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Stay connected with ACT for the latest insights, member updates, thought leadership, and upcoming events.
Have a perspective on this week’s focus issue or a topic you’d like to see covered in future communications? We’d love to hear from you.
