AI infrastructure, adoption gaps, and who bears the cost

Writing in IOL, Hassen Lorgat examines the risks building up around AI data centres – the large facilities that store and process the data AI systems run on – in the United States, and asks what South Africa can learn from those pressures. The piece calls for more critical public debate and clearer regulation of data centres locally, arguing that the country's own infrastructure is developing without sufficient scrutiny. For South African readers, the question is whether policy can keep pace with the pace at which this infrastructure is being built.

TechCentral reports that the surge in power demand from AI data centres (large facilities that house the computers running AI systems) may fall well short of what Eskom is counting on, as South Africa's biggest data centre operator expects renewable energy sources to supply more than half its electricity needs by the end of 2027. The piece raises questions about how much new revenue Eskom can realistically expect from the AI infrastructure buildout, at a time when the utility is looking for growth in industrial demand. For South Africans, the story touches on whether AI investment will meaningfully ease Eskom's financial position, or whether the benefits will be smaller and slower than anticipated.

Only about one in four South African companies has AI running in live operations, according to a survey reported by TechCentral, even as more than half plan to move AI workloads to cloud infrastructure within 18 months. The gap between planning and actual deployment points to a meaningful lag in how quickly local businesses are turning AI investment into working systems. For South African organisations weighing their own timelines, the figures offer a grounded benchmark of where the market actually stands.

Benguela Global Fund Managers has listed the Benguela EasyETFs Global AI Revolution Actively Managed ETF on the local market, according to Business Day TV. An exchange-traded fund (ETF) pools investors' money to buy a basket of shares, and this one focuses on companies involved in artificial intelligence globally. The listing gives South African retail investors a regulated, exchange-traded route to gain exposure to AI-sector equities without buying foreign shares directly.

At a TrendAI cybersecurity event held in Sun City, the company's vice president of solution engineering, Bilal Baig, argued that organisations rushing to adopt AI are creating security blind spots, particularly through 'shadow AI': employees and developers using AI tools without their organisation's knowledge or approval. Baig outlined five governance principles for safer AI deployment, covering visibility, clear policies, data protection, human accountability, and continuous monitoring, and pointed to TrendAI's own platform as one way to address these gaps. South African organisations adopting AI tools face the same exposure risks described, making the governance framework Baig outlined relevant to local IT and security teams, though the event was hosted and reported by a vendor with a product to sell.

MTN has added an AI-powered job board to its MTN Skills Academy platform, according to IT News Africa, combining course recommendations, job listings, and application tracking in one place. The feature, launched on International Youth Day, is aimed at connecting South African learners with employment opportunities by using automated matching to suggest relevant roles and skills guidance. The development is notable given MTN's reach across South Africa, though the source gives little detail on how the matching works or how many users it is expected to serve.

A developer at KRS, a South African firm, tells ITWeb that AI-assisted coding tools – software that suggests or generates code automatically – have shifted where the work sits rather than cutting the overall effort involved. The piece examines the less-visible costs that come with relying on these tools, offering a grounded local perspective on a debate that matters to South African software teams and the businesses that employ them.