Businesses can use their own data in AI systems to understand their business challenges in new ways and with greater accuracy, which will help them to make different decisions.

The use of AI systems could help companies understand their customers in lots of detail and could be the biggest tipping point in terms of serving customers. AI use also opened up possibilities of integrated platforms and seamless processes within organisations, said agricultural services company Afgri chief information officer Rika Myburg.

However, the chief component in these applications was data. Data was the essence of AI, she emphasised during the IT services company Datacentrix showcase in Monte Casino, Fourways, Gauteng.

A lot of what is happening in AI is to augment human creativity and judgement. However, decisions, made by machines or humans aided by machines, must emanate from intelligent data sources, said Datacentrix Group CEO Ahmed Mahomed.

"The operative word is 'intelligent' data sources. Similar to how having mining rights without extracting and mining resources means you only own a piece of land, we must find a way to mine and make intelligent the data piles we are sitting with at the local level," he said.

He suggested that Africa should look to mine and monetise data sources to benefit the continent and must curate its own data sources and build intelligence around them.

"While there is a skills gap locally and globally, we have the brainpower to beneficiate our own data in Africa and must not wait for others to monetise our own data. We need to develop into leaders in, and not just followers of, global technology," said Mahomed.

The first point of focus in developing AI solutions was the data. AI systems must create information from the data and empower people with this information and these insights, said diversified investment company Remgro Management Services head of technology and information Stephanie du Toit.

"AI is a significant game-changer and its potential is huge, but, when we look at the rate of change that businesses need to respond to, AI must be an enabler in businesses," she said.

Applying AI solutions was similar to deploying other technology in that businesses must understand the problem they were trying to solve, and then apply the technology to solve the problem, said financial services firm Absa Group Everyday Banking chief digital officer Subash Sharma.

Absa has an AI programme in which it is trying to enable its mobile application to assist clients using the app to easily complete what they want to achieve.

"The small screen is becoming the predominant ecosystem in which our clients do their banking. We don't want them to struggle to find what they need and are trying to develop a solution to assist them to implement what they need to do," he said.

However, Absa carefully curated the content produced by the solution, he added.

In its back office, the bank is trying to develop a solution to help its frontline employees in branches find the best way to solve a customer's problem.

"Our frontline employees cannot be experts in everything, and the solution being developed aims to help them determine the most appropriate way to help a customer," he said.

Meanwhile, soccer and sport company Tottenham Hotspur Football Club had deployed an array of technologies in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which was a multipurpose sport and training facility, said Tottenham Hotspur Football Club technology director Sanjeev Katwa.

The entire facility has WiFi connectivity, and the company digitally monitors all manner of metrics and statistics of fans, players on the field and the retail transactions of shops. This helps it to personalise digital content for fans on the mobile app, which is also used for ticketing, to provide statistics about players and to manage the catering.

"While we are using the capabilities that the technology enables to achieve the desired outcomes, to design and deploy integrated technology systems means working the other way around starting first with the outcomes that need to be achieved," he said.

Additionally, Tottenham, by necessity, had a hybrid cloud environment with some storage on site and the rest in the cloud. There were 63 IT rooms in the stadium and a sizeable data centre, he noted.

"There are 40 000 transactions each match, and up to 120 000 transactions for other events, such as National Football League matches or concerts.

"Data is crucial because it allows us to make real-time decisions, as well as our closed-circuit television security systems and other solutions requiring huge amounts of storage space. All our investments were made with the objective of growing our fan base," Katwa said.