By: Celiwe Ross - Group Chief Human Capital and Public Affairs Officer at Old Mutual

Disruption has become a movement. As technology accelerates faster than policy or culture, the question of innovation has been replaced with questions around how it can be done responsibly and with clarity and compassion. Markets are evolving, algorithms are learning, and human expectations are changing at such a rapid pace, institutions are struggling to adapt. Leaders are no longer expected to simply manage change, they need to humanise it because, while technology defines the speed of transformation, it is humanity that determines its direction. 

This tension between disruption and direction was central to this year’s Singularity University South Africa (SUSA) Summit. Over two days, global thinkers, technologists, scientists, and business leaders explored how emerging technologies can create a more equitable and prosperous Africa. One that isn’t left behind. And the message that emerged was that the continent isn’t a spectator in the digital era. From biotech and artificial intelligence to data sovereignty and responsible governance, Africa’s future is being built by people and institutions who are bold enough to redefine what progress looks like.

SUSA’s focus on exponential technologies served as a reminder that innovation without integrity is short-lived. Discussions around AI sovereignty and data as a natural resource, and the ethics of biotechnology and longevity, highlighted that technology must be a tool for prosperity and a mirror of our values. The challenge for leaders is to ensure that advancement doesn’t come at the expense of empathy and that the benefits of innovation are distributed as widely as its disruptions. 

The summit highlighted that progress without empathy risks deepening inequality, and that the success of any system ultimately depends on the values that sustain it. Technology can drive growth and efficiency, but only humanity can ensure it uplifts rather than divides. Courage, ingenuity, and empathy therefore are the new cornerstones of effective leadership. True transformation begins with understanding and connection – the ability to see people as they are and then create systems which reflect their realities. Trust remains the currency of progress.

Companies need to listen and question and act with conviction. For Old Mutual, which partnered with Singularity South Africa, the dialogue reinforced what has long been core to its purpose – being a certain friend in uncertain times. The company’s 180-year legacy has always been anchored in service to people, and its focus now is on combining technological capability with human empathy to meet the evolving needs of individuals, families, companies, and communities because the digital era doesn’t diminish that responsibility; it magnifies it.

Digital tools can scale access, improve service, and raise the quality of outcomes, yet they cannot substitute for context, community, or connection. When systems fail citizens at critical moments, people seek human support. The lesson is to focus on creating experiences that are digitally enabled and personally accountable so that progress does not come at the cost of care.

The task is now to execute on these lessons, and for business, this means investing in accessible products and services that meet people at their point of need, explaining choices in plain language and measuring success by outcomes that matter in communities. For policymakers, it means frameworks that welcome innovation while protecting citizens. And for institutions like Old Mutual, it means using scale to extend access, pairing artificial intelligence with human empathy because progress can be digital and human at the same time.