The growing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies will have a positive impact on South Africa’s economy, says Google SA.
In an interview with ITWeb, Google SA interim country director Paul Mayanja said more local firms want to transform business operations and improve customer experience through AI, which is stimulating demand for services provided by local data centres.
Google’s cloud region has seen increasing demand from South African organisations that are adopting emerging technologies, such as AI, to drive innovation, improve efficiency and enhance customer experience.
MTN Group, retailer Pepkor and Cape Town-based insurance company PPS are among the growing number of companies leveraging the services of Google’s local data centre, to deploy emerging technologies and scale their services, noted Mayanja.
“The opening of the cloud region has stimulated the growth of the local cloud ecosystem, with increased participation from partners, developers and start-ups. We're seeing strong demand across various sectors, from financial services, to retail and public sector organisations.
“AI is playing a massive role in the increasing demand for Google Cloud services in SA, and it’s certainly a trend we see accelerating.
“The MTN Group uses Google Cloud solutions to improve customer experience. Our platform allows MTN to process four trillion data records monthly and democratise insights in order to derive palpable business value from its data.”
Google’s Johannesburg cloud region went live in January. At the time, it said the new data centre would support businesses across the continent with high-performance, secure and low-latency cloud services.
The Johannesburg region is connected to Google’s network, comprising a system of fibre-optic cables under land and sea around the world.
The opening of the cloud region saw Google go head-on with other hyperscalers, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Alibaba Cloud.
Digital Realty-owned Teraco, Vantage Data Centres, Open Access Data Centres, Africa Data Centres and Equinix have also been expanding their data centre footprint in SA.
Chinese-based Alibaba Cloud recently entered the South African data centre market via a partnership with Telkom subsidiary BCX.
Referencing a Google impact report released last month, Mayanja said it predicted AI could increase SA’s economy by an estimated R172 billion by 2030.
“PPS is using Google Cloud machine learning offerings to transform from a traditional insurance broker into a modern digital provider,” he added.
Pepkor leverages Google Cloud’s data analytics solutions to transform its IT in-house logistical processes, enabling the company to help more households across the continent to access value-for-money products.
“AI enables businesses to analyse vast amounts of data and extract valuable insights, leading to better decision-making in areas like customer services, operations and product development. Sustainability is also a big focus area for South African businesses, and our cloud region is helping them achieve their environmental goals.
“Our goal is to empower businesses in SA and the rest of the continent with the tools and resources they need to succeed in the digital economy. We're not just building cloud infrastructure; we're also partnering with governments and local organisations to foster a thriving cloud ecosystem, and our recent $1 billion commitment to Africa is aimed at achieving exactly that,” Mayanja concluded.
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