Can Artificial Intelligence be an unexpected ally for procurement and supply chain in Africa? Prof Johan Steyn, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) enthusiast aimed to answer that question for us at the recent SPW Indaba 2022.
Digitisation and AI applications have been developed in the USA and Asia and are not always relevant to African markets, he explained. We live on a continent that has a fast-growing population, speaks more than 2000 languages and dialects and has poor infrastructure. There will be possibilities as AI technology develops further, especially in education and healthcare.
Opportunities for automation occur where there are many routine tasks, providing more time for higher level tasks that require critical thinking. We can’t automate culture, leadership, empathy, morality and intuition – at least not yet. We must teach our children fundamental thinking skills.
Before deciding to dive into AI or digitisation, Prof Steyn suggested that we ask, “what are we trying to automate?” Put the people first, ask what the customer has to say.
Prof. Johan Steyn is an Artificial Intelligence and Automation thought leader and speaks globally at conferences. He has worked in senior roles for Nedbank, Accenture and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
He is a published author who regularly contributes articles on thought-leadership to well-known publications such as Business Day, the Sunday Times, Finweek, News24, ITWeb and Brainstorm Magazine.
He is a Research Fellow at the School of Data Science and Computational Thinking at Stellenbosch University (South Africa). He is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Business at Woxsen University (India). He is a Global AI Ambassador with Swiss Cognitive.
