A new study, undertaken by independent technology research firm World Wide Worx in conjunction with Dell Technologies and Intel, has found that many large South African companies are starting to embrace generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).

Said to be the first study of its kind in South Africa, the South African Generative AI Roadmap 2024 found that 90% of the respondents currently use or have concrete plans to integrate GenAI within their organisations, the study states.

“Based on 100 interviews with decision-makers at large enterprises in South Africa, the study clearly demonstrates that GenAI is no longer a futuristic concept – it is a present-day reality that South African enterprises have firmly embraced as a catalyst for innovation and growth,” says Dell Technologies South Africa GM Doug Woolley.

He says that one of the driving forces behind the uptake is user-friendly tools and platforms that have made the integration of AI into business processes a straightforward process for enterprises of all sizes, without requiring extensive technical expertise or large financial investments.

“By automating repetitive tasks, optimising workflows, improving decision-making with data-driven insights and enhancing customer experiences through personalisation, AI has the potential to drive innovation, unlock new opportunities and contribute to long-term growth,” he says.

The report found that 45% of respondents are actively using GenAI, with an additional 45% of non-users actively evaluating implementation, while 10% have no immediate plans.

“The majority are in the initial stages, experimenting with public GenAI services; however, a vanguard is leveraging advanced cloud and on-premises AI solutions.”

The report highlights that 95.6% of the companies surveyed acknowledge GenAI’s potential positive impact on productivity, competitiveness, organisation of work, logistics, sales and customer service.

The study found that 66.7% of the companies surveyed observed “very positive” productivity effects owing to Gen AI, while 42.2% reported very positive competitiveness impacts and 31.1% very positive turnover impacts.

Overall, 96.7% of the surveyed companies are currently using Chatbots, or are planning or considering using this GenAI type in the future, while 95.6% and 95.5% respectively are leveraging AI-based text written content and code generation.

Some 93.3% and 92.2% of companies are using, or planning to use, AI in video creation and image creation respectively, while 91.1% are using or planning to use AI for audio creation, 87.8% for neural network creation and 84.4% for engineering design.