Turn vision into reality with the right AI strategy

Kathy Gibson reports from Dell Technologies Forum in Johannesburg – Today’s leaders aren’t asking whether to adopt AI, they’re asking how to turn it into outcomes the business can see.

And South African companies can no longer afford to take a wait-and-see attitude to change, says Mohammed Amin, senior vice-president: CEEMETA at Dell Technologies.

In fact, he believes AI technology – and specifically agentic AI – could play a pivotal role in South Africa’s future, as it supports and improves business processes.

But it’s not an easy journey to take, by any means: across the globe, 24% of CEOs and CIOs are struggling with the pace of change and the disruption is it bringing.

More significantly, 32% of organisations still lack an innovation roadmap that includes AI, data and security.

Because all of these elements are vital to implementing a successful AI transformation, Amin explains.

Executives recognise the importance, and today 90% of organisations expect security and resilience to be built into any technology proposal.

“In the past, companies may have designed the infrastructure, the middleware, the workloads and the use cases – and then thought about how to integrate cybersecurity,” Amin says.

“Today, when you put together a strategy, you design everything at once: the infrastructure, the use cases, the workloads and the cybersecurity.

“And you design it for the future: you have got to look ahead.”

This means simply having an idea or an intention is no longer enough: businesses must map out a clear path to the outcome as well.

Because even if an organisation has the money, the ideas and the infrastructure they could still fail without the right information or strategy.

“The strategy and roadmap must be clear; and it must be a strategy for the future.”

The opportunity for AI-driven businesses in South Africa is promising, and organisations are embracing the transformation.

Amin points out that just 12 months ago, 42% of local organisations had adopted AI: today that number stands at 67%.

“So the adoption is happening,” Amin says. “Companies recognise that agentic AI is going to change the world, and if they don’t transform they will be left behind.”

To achieve their goal, he explains, requires that organisations are AI-ready, which means ensuring that data is ready and cybersecurity is built in.

The first step is to ensure the infrastructure is fit-for-purpose, and this will involved a modern data centre. “Your current data centre is probably just not good enough to handle AI workloads.”

A significant 48% of South African organisations don’t believe their infrastructure is ready for the AI journey, Amin points out. They still need to deploy a modern data centre and put together a dynamic strategy for their workloads.

Local businesses also say their top challenge is data readiness. “If your data is not ready, you will fail,” Amin warns. “Huge AI workloads are coming, so your data has to be fast, secure and resilient, and flexible.”

Cybersecurity is rapidly becoming a top-of-mind issue: 92% of South African organisations see data protection and cybersecurity as key issues.
And they are not wrong to do so: Amin points out that South Africa ranks number three in the world for cyberattacks, which is why 67% of organisations are prioritising security and resilience strategies.

Data sovereignty is a big part of the cybersecurity strategy and will inform an oranisation’s cloud strategy, Amin points out. He suggests that companies would settle on a private cloud on-premise with access to several hyperscalers for some workloads.

Scale needs to be designed in from the beginning. “Scale for the future, with confidence,” Amin advises.

“Technology used to be seen as a business enabler. But over the last few years, IT has become the business. So how you scale it is very important for the business.”

Although 42% of organisations globally say they are not ready for AI, this means 58% are on the right track.

And AI is only going to expand in the future, Amin says, describing it as the first technology that generates more opportunities for itself.

“People talk about an AI bubble, and that may be true for stock prices. But as a global industry, it is real and growing, which is why we have seen $1,3-trillion in data centre investment in the last 12 months.”

Importantly, the workforce must also be modernised. “Agentic AI will fundamentally change the job market, so everybody will have to be transformed, and you must have a strategy for it,” Amin says.

“This is not about just the technology, it is the whole economy. In fact, 17% to 18% of global GDP will soon be digital, so transformation must be part of your future.”

Among South African business leaders, 56% agree on the adoption of AI PCs that can run real AI workloads on the device.

Meanwhile, 52% agree that hardware-rooted end point security is vital.

“With the right technology and AI strategy, decisions get better, security becomes stronger, and growth becomes sustainable,” Amin concludes.

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