Retail AI heats up while regulation struggles to keep pace

Writing in ITWeb, an opinion contributor argues that South Africa risks moving too slowly to have meaningful influence on how global AI rules and standards are shaped. The piece raises questions about whether the country's policy processes can keep pace with the speed at which international AI governance frameworks are being set. For South African readers, the concern is practical: countries that engage early tend to have more say in rules that will eventually apply here regardless.

Shoprite has released early usage figures for Pixie, its AI-powered shopping assistant (a chatbot that helps customers find products and deals), about a week after rival Pick n Pay launched a comparable tool called Penny, according to TechCentral. The data marks the first public scorecard in what is shaping up as a direct competition between two of South Africa's largest grocery chains to embed AI into the everyday shopping experience. For South African consumers and retail workers, how these tools perform and what data they collect are questions worth watching as adoption grows.

Woolworths is developing an AI-powered meal-planning tool called My Woolies Chef, according to TechCentral, though the retailer will limit its initial release to a small group of beta testers in September. The tool is part of a broader move by South African grocery retailers to introduce AI-driven features for shoppers. For South African consumers, the rollout signals that AI is beginning to shape everyday retail experiences locally, though widespread access remains some way off.

IT News Africa reports that South African organisations using AI-based KYC (know-your-customer) tools – software that automates identity and compliance checks – may be exposed in audits if those tools cannot produce auditable, human-reviewable records. The piece points to a tightening local regulatory environment, citing SARS's pursuit of R44 billion in unpaid taxes and the recently enacted Directive 11, as evidence that automated compliance processes face real scrutiny. The practical implication for South African businesses is that deploying an AI tool does not, on its own, satisfy a regulator's evidentiary requirements.

NEC Africa and PowerX have announced a partnership to offer telecommunications companies across Africa a combined system that uses machine learning (software that finds patterns in data to make predictions) to manage energy use and flag potential network faults before they cause outages, according to IT News Africa. The offering targets the high energy costs and reliability pressures that affect large, spread-out mobile and fixed-line networks, including those operating in South Africa. The partnership is at announcement stage and further operational detail has not yet been published.

Meta has updated its Ray-Ban AI glasses so that covering or disabling the small white light near the camera will automatically shut the camera off, closing a loophole that some modification services had exploited to enable discreet recording, according to Memeburn. At the same time, the Financial Times reports that Meta is developing a prototype "super sensing" system that could continuously collect audio and images throughout a wearer's day, with an AI assistant (software that responds to questions and recalls information) drawing on that stream to answer questions about past conversations or objects. For South Africans, the practical question is less about whether to buy the glasses and more about what it means to be near someone who is wearing them in an office, restaurant, or university, given that bystanders have no reliable way to know what the AI is observing or retaining.

South Africa's data centre power demand is on track to nearly double by 2029, according to ITWeb, reflecting the rapid growth of digital infrastructure in the country. Data centres are the facilities that house the computer servers used to run AI systems and other online services, and their rising energy needs have direct implications for South Africa's already constrained electricity grid. For policymakers and energy planners, the projected surge raises questions about how expanded data centre capacity will be balanced against broader electricity supply pressures.