As artificial intelligence in its various forms becomes increasingly integrated into business operations in many sectors across South Africa, there is a need for companies not already embracing the new technological era to jump aboard or risk being left behind.

The adoption of AI in South Africa is not new – from call and contact centres, telecommunications channels or even human resources processes, AI, with an extensive range of use cases, is slowly being integrated into various processes, evolving and maturing over the past few years to the state it is now.

Many mobile device owners have access to some form of AI, while every industry worldwide is experimenting with the various foundational AI models in its operations. This trend ushers in a new way of thinking, new intelligence and a new, more efficient way of working.

Companies in the telecommunications sector, for example, are using AI in their operational environments, with early adopters leveraging technologies within their channels for front-end customers and creating chatbots, as well as balancing their networks, besides other applications.

Within call centres, AI is delivering clever analysis to decrease customer tickets and enable agents to target the correct actions rapidly and become more efficient, says Accenture Africa communications, media and technology MD Nitesh Singh.

Within organisations, various internal corporate use cases have emerged, including those that enhance productivity, optimise costs, boost sales and marketing processes and optimise the customer experience, as well as unlock the ability to assist companies in understanding their customers better.

AI interaction is also starting to become more visible in product selection and purchase, and consumers will likely start to see AI interaction behind the products purchased, ensuring the consumer gets the right product when needed or wanted and, increasingly, consumers’ devices are being connected to devices within their homes, such as washing machines.

Generative AI is now starting to have a conversational flow to it, and customers on e-commerce websites are interacting with AI models, which are recommending and selling products based on detected patterns, targeting the right product for customers, Singh explains to Engineering News & Mining Weekly in a video interview.

“I think another interesting example, core to the telecommunications business, is on the network side and the load balancing of networks,” he continues.

The operation, maintenance and modernisation of networks are capital intensive, amid lower product pricing and competition, and automated AI-based network planning can assist in lowering these costs.

Much of this network planning is currently manual; however, there are some early trials under way, with the various South African telecommunications groups integrating AI into their core network to deliver better quality of services and better call rates, besides others.

Where AI will further benefit operators’ rural sites is from a site deployment planning perspective. As the AI model starts understanding site deployment in South Africa, it will start detecting more efficient placement of sites and site areas that would provide the most coverage.

AI adoption and integration have not occurred “overnight”; instead, AI has been slowly interacting and integrating into businesses and with the lives of consumers.

“In five years, one will find AI being a de facto in most devices, and in many of the exchanges we have there will be some AI type of interaction. It will only increase. I definitely see it being a bit more pervasive in five years’ time.”

However, in some cases, a mindset shift is needed in the AI era to remain ahead of the curve, as many organisations hesitate to adopt AI owing to the capital investment required and consider waiting, opting instead to see how it evolves first.

“My guidance is to try, for your industry, to start investing time and understanding how it is going to help you and the industry. Accenture has done a lot of research on that through our business reinvention surveys, and organisations that are investing ahead of the curve are leapfrogging far ahead. And the ones that tried a bit later struggle to catch up.”

One such survey, conducted late last year, found that, in the rapidly evolving digital era, it is becoming increasingly crucial for companies to become constant reinventors of every part of their businesses to remain ahead of the curve.

A strong digital core, comprising elements such as platforms, cloud infrastructure, data, artificial intelligence and security, forms the foundation for any business in the digital era, providing a stable, future-forward base from which the business can operate and thrive.

“We are seeing a very low percentage of corporates that are doing this,” Singh said at the time, pointing out that the “reinventors”, which account for just 8% of the 1 500 companies surveyed in Accenture’s ‘Total Enterprise Reinvention’ report, are starting to understand this model and taking it a step further.

While it does take time and investment to test and deploy AI models, as there is a learning process, South African organisations should start, with urgency, adopting and integrating AI models, or they will fall further behind.

“You have to invest time to embrace AI. There are many opportunities in the value chain, but you got to innovate. Competitors are using AI and your consumers need that different level of interaction right now.”