Adoption, access, and who controls the tools
This edition looks at where AI is actually landing in South Africa right now: in a grocery app, in a Soweto skills centre, and in the strategies of some of the country's largest technology and retail businesses. Alongside those local developments, two broader questions run through the edition – how ready South African organisations really are to put AI to use, and how decisions made in Washington about which companies can export AI technology shape what is available here. A column on prompt-writing and an economist's read on the global AI investment surge round out a picture of a technology that is moving from announcement to implementation, unevenly and with real questions still open.
Policy & governance
Washington backs down on Anthropic AI export curbs
TechCentralPolicy
The United States government has reversed restrictions on Anthropic – the company behind the Claude family of large language models (software systems trained on large amounts of text to generate and analyse language) – that had limited who could access its technology internationally, according to TechCentral. Anthropic will resume broader access after agreeing to work with Washington on safety protocols governing how its systems are used. For South Africa, the shift matters because US export controls on AI systems shape which tools are available here and on what terms, so a loosening of those controls could widen access for local businesses, researchers, and developers.
Business & economy
TCS | Pick n Pay’s Enrico Ferigolli on Penny, the AI that shops for you
TechCentral· SponsoredBusiness
Pick n Pay has launched an AI-powered shopping assistant called Penny, built on Google's Gemini language model (software trained on large amounts of text to hold conversations and answer questions), according to TechCentral's interview with the retailer's chief digital officer Enrico Ferigolli. Penny is designed to let customers shop through conversation rather than browsing a catalogue, and Pick n Pay positions it as part of its response to on-demand delivery competitors such as Sixty60. The development is notable for South African consumers and the retail sector as one of the first live deployments of a conversational AI shopping tool by a major local grocery chain.Also reported by Moneyweb, Business Day / BusinessLIVE, TechCentral
Naspers yet to crack how to monetise AI platform ToqanClaw
Business Day / BusinessLIVEBusiness
Business Day reports that Naspers, through its global technology investment arm Prosus, has yet to find a way to make money from ToqanClaw, its artificial intelligence platform that helps companies build and run AI-powered tools and services. The platform is currently free to use, both for companies within the Prosus portfolio and for those outside it. For South African readers, the question of how one of the country's largest and most internationally significant technology groups turns its AI ambitions into a sustainable business model is worth watching.Economic impact of the AI investment boom
Business Day / BusinessLIVEBusiness
Business Day TV spoke with Sanisha Packirisamy, group economist at Momentum, about the economic effects of the current surge in AI investment globally. The segment offers a South African analytical perspective on how this investment wave may shape economies, including South Africa's. No further detail from the conversation is available in the source description.
Education & skills
Google is building a digital innovation centre in Soweto
Hypertext (htxt)Education
Google has announced plans to build a digital innovation centre at the George Tabor Campus of South West Gauteng TVET College in Soweto, with a reported budget of R3 million, according to Hypertext. The centre, developed in partnership with local coding and AI training institute WeThinkCode_, is intended to build AI skills among people the tech industry typically does not reach, and forms part of Google's broader economic and community development programme in Africa. No opening date has been confirmed yet, but Google has said AI will be the primary focus of the training and qualifications on offer.Also reported by Hypertext (htxt), Hypertext (htxt), TechCabal
The AI skill nobody taught you: how to write better prompts
Business Day / BusinessLIVEEducation
Writing columnist Rufaro Mafinyani, in Business Day, argues that the ability to write clear instructions for AI tools (known as prompting) is a practical workplace skill that most people have not been formally taught. The piece contends that better-structured prompts lead to more accurate and useful outputs from AI systems, with direct benefits for productivity and decision-making. For South African readers adopting AI tools at work, the column offers a locally grounded case for treating prompt-writing as a learnable, everyday competency rather than a technical specialism.