By: Varaidzo Mureriwa - Managing Director within the Health & Public Service business at Accenture, Africa

Artificial intelligence has rapidly shifted from a distant technological aspiration to a concrete driver of economic transformation, and its relevance for Africa—particularly South Africa—has grown significantly over the past year. As global value chains become more digital, more transparent and increasingly governed by data-rich compliance requirements, the continent stands at a crossroads. Either African economies integrate AI strategically to reposition themselves within these value chains, or they risk further marginalisation in an era defined by technological acceleration. The agricultural sector, long considered Africa’s economic backbone and a significant employer across Southern, East and West Africa, presents one of the clearest opportunities for meaningful change.

Recent research on AI in African agriculture, with a focus on cocoa, coffee and sugarcane value chains, highlights a structural reality long familiar to South African agribusiness: value is disproportionately captured outside the continent. While Africa supplies much of the world’s raw commodities, high-value processing, branding and retail largely remain offshore. South Africa encounters similar dynamics in sugarcane and horticulture, where world-class primary production coexists with relatively limited upstream and midstream value addition. For South African business leaders, the emerging AI landscape provides both a warning and an opportunity. Without digital traceability, climate-aligned verification and AI-enhanced logistics, African exports—including South Africa’s—risk exclusion from premium markets such as the EU, where sustainability regulations have tightened sharply over the past 12 months.

AI-enabled tools are already demonstrating impact across Africa’s agricultural chains. Predictive analytics are being used to forecast climate risks, machine-learning models support yield prediction and computer vision technology aids in quality grading. For South Africa, these applications are particularly relevant as the country works to enhance competitiveness under continued load-shedding pressures, rising input costs and intensifying climate volatility. In the sugar industry, for instance, Mozambique and South Africa remain pivotal exporters, yet value capture still leans heavily towards commercial mills rather than smallholder growers. AI-driven traceability and digital payment systems can close this gap by improving transparency, enabling certification and strengthening bargaining power for growers who have historically operated on the margins.

Another critical theme emerging across the continent is regional integration. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), along with SADC, COMESA and ECOWAS, plays a central role in harmonising standards and creating interoperable digital systems. South Africa’s position as a technologically advanced economy within SADC gives it a strategic role in shaping these frameworks. A continent-wide approach to AI governance—particularly regarding traceability, data standards, certification and customs digitalisation—will be essential for ensuring continental consistency and lowering barriers for cross-border agribusiness. For the South African business community, this presents an opportunity to lead on regulatory alignment, infrastructure investment and capacity building across value chains that heavily depend on regional integration.

The South African logistics sector also stands to gain considerably from AI adoption. Recent studies indicate that AI could boost productivity in domestic logistics by up to 30% through real-time routing, predictive maintenance and streamlined port operations. Given the well-documented challenges, AI-driven optimisation is poised to become a strategic differentiator for South African exporters. Efficient, digitally integrated logistics will be vital for maintaining South Africa’s competitiveness not only within Africa but in global markets where speed, transparency and reliability have become non-negotiable.

Yet the success of AI adoption extends beyond technology deployment; it depends on inclusion, governance and skills development. Across Africa, women, youth and persons with disabilities remain at risk of exclusion as the agricultural sector digitises. In Southern Africa, women form the backbone of labour in sugarcane and horticulture but remain underrepresented in leadership and have lower rates of smartphone ownership, reducing their access to AI-enabled tools. South Africa has an opportunity to design inclusive AI strategies that recognise these disparities and deliberately bridge them. Youth unemployment, for example, remains one of the nation’s most pressing challenges, yet young people benefit from higher digital literacy and strong interest in emerging technologies. Positioning youth as digital intermediaries or agri-tech innovators could simultaneously enhance AI adoption and drive broader economic participation.

Governance will ultimately determine whether AI accelerates equitable growth or deepens existing structural divides. Data governance frameworks, farmer and SME data rights and privacy mechanisms must be strengthened to ensure that digital transformation benefits producers rather than concentrating power among external intermediaries. South Africa’s business community, with its established financial institutions, fintech ecosystem and corporate governance structures, is well placed to support robust and ethical data frameworks that align with global standards.

What emerges clearly from the broader African context is that AI can shift the continent’s role from raw-commodity supplier to competitive value-adding participant—if deployed strategically, inclusively and at scale. For South African companies and industry bodies, this means investing in digital infrastructure, partnering with regional blocs to harmonise standards, supporting inclusive digital literacy initiatives and embedding AI into procurement, compliance and supply chain systems. AI is no longer an optional enhancement; it is the foundation for future-proofing competitiveness in a global economy increasingly governed by digital compliance, climate transparency and precision-led production.

Across Africa’s anchor crops and across South Africa’s own value chains, the imperative is clear: AI offers a rare chance to leapfrog structural barriers that have long limited industrialisation and value capture. For the business community, this is a strategic moment to shape the direction of continental transformation, align with emerging global trade norms and help redefine Africa’s role in international markets through innovation, integration and inclusive growth.