In anticipation of the influence artificial intelligence (AI) will have on its operations, Liquid Intelligent Technologies has established a new unit to focus on how the company can embrace it.

Liquid chief strategy officer Willie Oosthuysen stated the company is exploring the impact of emerging technologies, such as AI, on its business.

The move comes as the majority of South African IT leaders expect generative AI to shortly have an impact on their organisations, surpassing other emerging technologies.

This is according to Salesforce’s recent State of IT study, which includes critical trends from IT leaders in 28 countries, including 200 from South Africa.

Over 4 000 IT leaders from around the world were polled for the report, to establish the trends, priorities and problems driving the business and IT landscape.

Speaking to ITWeb last week, on the sidelines of the Africa Digital Transformation Strategy Summit in Cape Town, Oosthuysen said: “We have started a whole function at group level for the business, that will only look after AI, machine learning and the application for our own network and also how we service customers.

“We are at a stage where we are identifying where we can apply AI. We are building an AI and strategy team that focuses on emerging technologies, to identify the impact on Liquid and our customers, and see how we can leverage it and monetise it in future.”

According to Oosthuysen, the Cassava Technologies-owned Liquid, which has a wide African footprint, has also built an internal AI platform to enable employees to learn more about AI.

“We are encouraging our people to start learning and playing around with AI.”

Willie Oosthuysen, chief strategy officer, Liquid Intelligent Technologies.

The gathering in Cape Town was attended by African telecoms executives focusing on digital transformation strategy.

According to event organiser Novacom Summits, Africa's digital transformation has gained momentum and presents a $100 billion opportunity to connect people across the continent.

The main speaker for the event was Juliet Ehimuan, former director of Google West Africa.

Ehimuan was a driving force behind Google's transformational digital efforts, such as Get Nigeria Businesses Online, and the localisation of Google Maps, Streetview and YouTube.ng.

She noted there has been a tremendous year-on-year increase in Africans going online, which has opened new opportunities, particularly in the digital economy.

“We should fully continue to lean on technology. African governments should continue to look at enabling the environment, accelerate and stimulate the growth of the digital economy.

“The internet needs to be a lot more affordable and available for the average user in Africa. There is a lot of work for governments to stimulate investments and help develop infrastructure,” she said.