Information technology and software company Microsoft has announced that it will invest a further R5.4-billion to build out more data centre infrastructure in South Africa.

This is in addition to the R20.4-billion it has already invested in South Africa over the past three years to establish enterprise-grade data centres in Johannesburg and Cape Town, Microsoft Corporation vice-chairperson and president Brad Smith said at Microsoft's offices in Bryanston, Gauteng, on March 6.

Further, in addition to providing training in AI skills to one-million South Africans by 2026, the company will also pay for 50 000 South Africans to be trained and certified on cloud architecture, AI and cybersecurity.

“In addition to the breadth of training in AI skills, it is depth of skills that makes a difference in building a stronger economy,” he said during the event titled 'Building an AI economy'.

“AI is a general-purpose technology that is driving immense changes in the world's economy, similar to the general-purpose technologies that drove the previous three industrial revolutions.

“Similar to electricity, we can expect that AI will change every part of the economy as its is used in every economy sector. To enable its use, AI needs three layers, namely infrastructure, the AI platform and then the application layer,” he stated.

Again, similar to electricity, it is expensive to build the infrastructure but is widely accessible and easily used in the application layer, Smith emphasised.

The key to successfully ensuring that technology changes each part of an economy is to ensure that each part can access and use the technology.

“This highlights the importance of skills development. If the key is to use the technology in every sector of the economy, then it will only happen if there are skills for it to be used everywhere in the economy,” he said.

Meanwhile, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the digitalisation of government services would continue. Following the success at the South African Revenue Service (Sars), the next government service that will be digitalised will be Home Affairs and the creation of digital identities so that citizens can access all available government services at anytime and anywhere.

Thereafter, government will focus on the digitalisation of healthcare and the payment of grants.

“As part of our goal to build a capable State, we will also focus on providing AI skills training for public servants. The aim is to give the people of our country great services, like Sars is doing,” he said at the event.

Government is moving to greater levels of using digital technologies. As part of the work to reform the public service and build a capable State, South Africa is also investing in public infrastructure to give South Africans digital access to government services.

Home Affairs would be next in line for digitalisation. This will spread to other departments to interface with citizens, he said.

“At the heart of this process is the implementation of a digital identify system that will transform relations between citizens and government, and which will create one government that is accessible to each person.”

In 2024, South Africa finalised the National Cloud and Data policy to support innovation in the economy and it is currently in the process of finalising its Cybersecurity Bill, Ramaphosa said.

“As a country, we are developing a national AI policy that seeks to position South Africa as a leader in AI innovation while at the same time addressing the ethical, economic and social implications of AI use.”

AI holds great potential to drive economic growth. AI-powered computing capabilities can bolster existing industry, and businesses can deploy their own models, but this also paves the way for the creation of new businesses, he said.