SA businesses embrace GenAI – but strategy and skills lagging, finds 2025 Roadmap

Hi Guys, 

South African enterprises are rapidly integrating Generative AI (GenAI) into their operations, but most are doing so without formal strategies, dedicated leadership, or the infrastructure required to maximise value and minimise risk.

This is the key finding of the newly released South African Generative AI Roadmap 2025, based on a study by World Wide Worx in collaboration with Dell Technologies and Intel.

The report, which surveys over 100 mid-sized and large enterprises across industry sectors, shows that GenAI adoption has climbed from 45% of large enterprises in 2024 to 67% in 2025.

This dramatic rise positions GenAI as the fastest-moving digital trend in the country. However, in a rush to adopt the fast-growing technology, there is a need for organisations to take the foundational steps of planning and governance. Doing so will more clearly connect AI to people and processes and help organisations reap genuine, sustaining ROI.

“Many organisations are simply unaware of the gaps they’re leaving in their systems,” says Arthur Goldstuck, CEO of World Wide Worx and principal analyst of the study. “The risk goes beyond the technical, and includes reputational, ethical, and operational vulnerability. While the first step of technology adoption is well underway, our survey demonstrates there is room for operational growth.”

According to the report’s findings, AI adoption has brought clear benefits to the organisations using it:

• 86% of GenAI users cite increased competitiveness as a result of using AI tools.
• 83% report improved productivity.
• 66% see enhanced customer service.

Yet, behind these numbers lies an operational gap:

• Only 14% of organisations have a formal company-wide GenAI strategy.
• Just 13% have implemented governance or ethical frameworks in the form of guardrails for safety, privacy and bias mitigation.
• 39% cite high implementation cost as the primary barrier to GenAI adoption

AI maturity requires foundations

“The roadmap aims to help guide stakeholders to fully understand the scope of GenAI, and to build transparent strategies that deliver on its promise without placing enterprises at risk,” says Goldstuck. “What’s most startling is that many companies think using a GenAI tool is the same as having an AI strategy.”

As companies race to embed GenAI tools like Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT into business functions, most are overlooking deeper transformation through infrastructure, skills and internal capability. Holistic AI infrastructure, combined with people and processes, is critical to scaling AI deployments and clearly connecting them to tangible return on investment.

Shadow AI

The report raises the alarm about “shadow AI” – the unsanctioned use of GenAI by employees without oversight. Currently:

• 32% of businesses report informal or unregulated GenAI use.
• A further 20% report a mix of official and unofficial GenAI use.
• 84% say oversight is an important or very important success factor for GenAI deployment.

Critical governance measures include clear principles for oversight, accountability, and responsible use. It enables organisations to build trust, reduce risk, and drive long-term value.

“The current use of GenAI is largely taking place in a regulatory and ethical vacuum,” Goldstuck warns. “The longer this continues, the more harm can be caused to both businesses and individuals before these guardrails are in place.

“Without governance, organisations are walking blindfolded into a future shaped by AI. That might be exciting, but it is not sustainable.”

The roadmap also identifies two areas of opportunity:

• Business and Societal impact: Over 75% of respondents have no measures in place to monitor or reduce the energy use and footprint of GenAI.
• Skills development: A massive 87% of businesses have committed to GenAI upskilling or training of employees.

The report cautions that South Africa could find itself divided by the ability to use GenAI wisely and scale deployments as the technology matures.

Goldstuck says: “There’s a real risk of a GenAI disconnect in South Africa between those who use GenAI deliberately, strategically and ethically, and those who use it blindly or not at all.”

About World Wide Worx:
World Wide Worx is South Africa’s leading independent technology research organisation, focused on delivering evidence-based insights for digital transformation.

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New Year Resolutions - Week 18 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends, 

At the start of Week 18, I was around 984 Youtube Subscribers and struggled to reach the 1000 mark where I will lose a few subscribers and gain the equivalent number of them. It really needed a little push for which I asked one of my cousins to go ahead and do it. He did what he does best and helped me reach the 1000 mark in Week 19. 

Week 18 - Sat 30 Apr 2022 - Fri 07 May 2022

1. Walking - I completed 27 kilometres in this week to make it to the 360-kilometre mark in Week 18 which is around the 20 km mark every week. This brings a lot of satisfaction that we are where we wanted to be and the same was achieved on 2-May-2022. This week I walked too much which made me go in with some kind of leg and back pain and impacted the next week completely. It's better to follow the schedule always and reach a point where your body can take it comfortably. 

2. Hanuman Chalisa - I completed the 41x Years of Hanuman Chalisa on Tuesday, 3rd May 2022 and also completed 15000x Hanuman Chalisa on 4th May too and am left with less than 400x now. It brought me a lot of happiness that I am going to reach my goal soon rather than waiting till my birthday on 22nd July 2022. 

3. Launch Events - This has been a rare case when I attended 3 events in a single day and that happened on 6-May when I attended a RedHat event, an Intel event and then a book launch event in the evening. The goodies were really nice from RedHat and a snacks box from Intel which you can check in my Youtube videos below. Also, Monday being a holiday brought the parties at home on Saturday and a picnic at the Botanical Garden in Johannesburg. It was great to see that the place has been upgraded quiet significantly from the last time I saw it many years ago.

4. Thank You - The count started from 16000 and reached the 43000 mark during this week. I am still not able to count all the totals as I don't want to waste my time on the same instead I will increase the count for the day. 

5. Books/Audiobooks - I completed Invested: How Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger Taught Me to Master My Mind, My Emotions, and My Money audiobooks by Danielle Town and Phil Town and came across various new financial ratios which I need to think about. The book inspired me to look at the other books by Phil Town a little later in the year. 

6. Entertainment - I watched Legends of The Ramayana With Amish on Discovery Plus as Amish Tripathi is my favourite writer and because of this I started reading non-fiction novels when he launched the Shiva Trilogy series. I met him too during the launch event of his third one from the Shiva series on Westland books. The 3 episodes documentary march the journey taken up by Lord Rama to find Sita from Lanka where Raavan kept her. There are certain landmarks in various parts of India and Sri Lanka which are showcased and the whole Ramayana is mapped to where it happened and what remains there in the modern world now. It was an eye-opener in terms of various facts which I was unaware of about the Ramayana book. Totally worth your time if you love Lord Rama or Lord Bajrang Bali ji.

May 2022 is the month that I have been waiting for since the start of the year 2022. I am going to meet my brother and his family after a gap of many many years. He is taking a long flight to South Africa and I have to schedule a great stay for him. Everything will be focused on him as I love him a lot and respect that he is coming to me. The last time I went to him was in 2005 on my first international trip to Singapore and he came to meet me in 2006 in Hyderabad from the USA. 

WEEK 17

Cheers!!!

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Unboxing Dell TechByte Goodies @DellTechZA #DellTechByte #DellTechZA #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends,

Dell Technologies South Africa organises these Dell Tech Byte Webinars at regular intervals and this one is the last of this year on 9 Dec 2021 on the topic - INTELLIGENT COLLABORATION. ENDLESS INNOVATION. 

Get the opportunity to learn more about Dell's award-winning server tech solutions from top industry experts. Thanks to Dell Tech ZA for sending these amazing snacks and a sweet little gift for the festive season!

Check out the unboxing video for the same - https://youtu.be/-fWRLu6zdDU

 

So far I have not won the awesome prizes Dell gives from time to time like UPS, Android Box - Roku, Smart Speakers from Amazon, Kindle etc but I will continue to try winning the same in 2022!

If you loved the video we have more like these on our channel, so don't forget to subscribe to my channel and give it a like or two!

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#AwakenYourForce with HP #StarWars Special Edition Notebook @Indiblogger

Hi Guys!

Yoda, Jedi Grand Master once told that, “Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny” and so can be said about the latest special edition Star Wars Special Edition Notebook from HP. I am sure you are never going to leave it out of your sight as well as your heart will be filled with proud to have something like this Star Wars Notebook machine which will enable you to control the whole universe with your fingers. 

The great looks of the machine matters to those who love things much beyond they love themselves and their lives. HP Star Wars notebook will inspire your dark side to take over the creative aspect with full force and you can create whatever you want as the processing powers of this machine is the best that’s available in the milky way galaxy. It has sixth generation Intel core i5 processor which can handle multitasking as commanded by the emperor of the machine. 

The black and red themed notebook will bring your blood to boil whenever you see something which doesn’t have as much power for the price you pay for it. With HP Star Wars Notebook, there is something you can always do to keep your adrenalin running in your blood vessels. I am very much hopeful that I create something unique always, be it managing my DSLR raw images using Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom or creating Visio diagrams for my professional assignments. Be it developing a new Android/iOS app or Microsoft app this is capable to handle all the data you can think of. 

My fun way to use this machine is to watch the first six parts on DVD/Blu-Ray versions end to end to initiate myself into the world of creativity to bring the galaxy far far away closer to home. Then to celebrate the success of buying myself this Notebook, I need to go and watch 3D of the latest version of movie The Force Awakens. In the end, I want to read all the Wikipedia pages about the movies and characters along with fun facts search on google to complete the journey. This is I consuming all the matter created by my ancestors and my evoking my hidden powers to learn and think about what to do next? 

The next part of the journey is up to me to create the new content and share it with all forces of nature so that they can appreciate the beauty of the same. Dark side needs to be discovered and it can only be done, if you explore unlimitedly each day of your like on the Green planet. I can plan my travel, book tickets, hotel and plan to stay with local families all on this notebook. I can share the exclusive content with my newly found friends when I carry it around and definitely it is going to be a conversation starter. www.hpshopping.in/starwars #AwakenYourForce 

When this notebook starts on its B&O play speakers then even clouds lose their thunder as the sound is so deep that it brings our your worst fears alive. For me the party starts anywhere I have this machine and some people around. No need to buy something else for the parties anymore. 

As the dark forces always believes in revenge so it is the memory capacity of 1TB on this notebook to keep all your content on the machine in reach and 8GB of RAM to faster process it also. 2GB graphics card makes me look ever darker in space with lot of detail on the display which is worthy of my eyes. 

All of this is wrapped in the special software created to carry me towards my destination even when the times are light and walking is tough. I can get inspiration from other worlds as themes can be configured and downloaded. I am so living in the fun that now neither friends nor enemies matters to me as I belong to the HP Universe and they belong to me. My dark side has become the saberlight for the world to carry in their hands till the end of time. 

In the end, I am sure of the fact that “For over a thousand generations, the Jedi were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic — before the dark times. Before the Empire.” But now it is my time and I am making the most of it day and night with HP Star Wars Special Edition Notebook.

Cheers!!!

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