Artificial intelligence could add as much as R1.4-trillion to South Africa’s economy by the end of the decade and create up to 400,000 jobs, according to estimates presented by Huawei South Africa last week.
The forecast comes with a substantial warning: fewer than 35% of South African companies have identified where AI can unlock value from their own data, while the country could face a shortage of about 200,000 AI and ICT professionals by 2030.
Huawei South Africa deputy general manager Kui Zheng presented the estimates at the company’s annual Huawei Connect conference in Johannesburg.
The figures highlight the gap between enthusiasm for AI and its use in day-to-day business operations. South African companies have run numerous pilot projects, but moving the technology into production requires reliable connectivity, usable data, computing capacity and staff who understand both AI and the industry in which it is being deployed.
Huawei cited a South African rail security system as an example of AI producing a measurable result. The company said the system had reduced cable theft by 80%, although it did not identify the rail operator or provide further details of the deployment.
Zheng said AI projects would depend on collaboration between technology companies, developers, customers and local partners.
“The future of AI won’t be built by one company, even Huawei. We couldn’t do that,” he said. “It will be built by an open ecosystem of partners, developers and customers creating value together.”
Huawei has proposed a three-stage approach to preparing companies and public institutions for AI. Connectivity comes first, followed by systems that allow organisations to collect and use data. AI can be introduced at scale only once those foundations are operating reliably.
Huawei South Africa CEO Will Meng said developing economies would struggle to deploy AI widely without first strengthening their communications networks, data systems and existing digital operations.
“Large-scale deployment of artificial intelligence cannot be built without solid digital infrastructure,” he said. “Developing economies seeking to advance intelligence must gradually shore up foundations including networks, data and industry digitalisation.”
Huawei says equipment supplied by the company supports 85-million mobile connections through 28,000 base stations in South Africa. Its fibre technology connects about 3.4-million households, while more than 800 private campus networks have been deployed for companies and public institutions.
The company said these networks included connections at more than 100 hospitals and 3,000 schools. Huawei Cloud operates three availability zones in South Africa and serves more than 300 customers, supported by over 1,000 technology partners.
These figures describe the reach of Huawei’s own business as much as they measure South Africa’s readiness for AI. Access remains uneven, particularly in communities where mobile data and smart devices remain unaffordable.
Communications and digital technologies minister Solly Malatsi said wider AI adoption would depend on extending connectivity and reducing the cost of devices.
“We have a responsibility to ensure that we don’t only view AI as a threat to be feared, nor as a trend to be followed lightly,” he said. “Instead, we should see it as one of the greatest opportunities of our time to solve some of our most pressing developmental challenges.”
South Africa has one of the more developed technology sectors on the continent, along with local cloud data centres, financial services platforms and mobile networks capable of supporting large AI deployments. These advantages have yet to translate into broad adoption across companies and government departments.
Many organisations remain stuck at the experimental stage. They may have tested chatbots, automated document processing or generative AI services, but have not integrated the technology into core production systems.
Huawei’s proposed ACT programme is designed to move companies beyond these trials. It begins by identifying business processes where AI could deliver a worthwhile result, before models are adapted using relevant industry data and introduced into wider operations.
The company says the approach has been used to identify more than 1,000 production scenarios internationally. Its global developer community includes more than four million people.
Local implementation will rely heavily on Huawei’s partner network. The company works with more than 1,400 South African businesses, which it says generate 94.7% of its local revenue and carry out more than 90% of its delivery and service work.
Projects developed with these companies include digital twins with BCX, retail systems with Altron, connected healthcare services with Gijima and paperless government technology with CoCre8.
The scale of the economic benefit projected by Huawei will depend on how many of these projects progress from demonstrations into working systems. It will also depend on whether South Africa can train enough engineers, data specialists and industry professionals to fill the skills gap identified by the company.
Malatsi said the response would require greater cooperation between government and business.
“We should see AI as one of the greatest opportunities of our time to solve some of our most pressing developmental challenges.”