As the world argues about whether artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing too fast, taking too many jobs and consuming too many resources, South Africa should be asking a different question: what can we build with AI?
AI has entered a new and uncomfortable phase. The debate is no longer simply about whether AI will make our lives easier. Around the world, workers are protesting the threat of job displacement, companies are restructuring around AI, communities are questioning the environmental costs of data centres, and even some of the technology industry's leading voices are calling for greater restraint in the development of increasingly powerful systems.
The controversy is understandable. AI has enormous potential to increase productivity, but it also raises legitimate questions about employment, inequality, privacy, human agency and who ultimately captures the economic value created by the technology.
South Africa should take these concerns seriously. But we should not allow the debate to become trapped in a single question: how many jobs will AI destroy?
For a country confronting one of the world's most persistent unemployment challenges, the more important question is: how many jobs, businesses and industries could we create with AI?
South Africa cannot afford to treat AI merely as a technology trend that happens to us. We need to see it as an opportunity to create new capabilities, businesses, industries and, ultimately, jobs. I call this an AI4Jobs mindset: not an economy in which AI makes humans unnecessary, but one in which AI makes more humans more capable.
From automation to creation
AI does not create jobs automatically. It creates capability. People, entrepreneurs and businesses must convert that capability into products, services, companies and economic value.
Imagine a young entrepreneur using AI to develop software for African businesses; a township enterprise accessing international customers; a farmer using AI to improve yields; a creative producing content for global markets; or a small manufacturer using AI to compete with much larger companies.
Technology is the multiplier. Human imagination, entrepreneurship and leadership determine what gets multiplied.
The opportunity is therefore bigger than making existing organisations more efficient. It is about creating entirely new sources of economic activity, particularly in areas where South Africa already has natural, human or commercial advantages.
Building the Next10 Economy
This is where the Next10 framework becomes relevant. It focuses attention on future-facing sectors including energy, agriculture, advanced manufacturing, financial services, healthcare and life sciences, tourism, mining and critical minerals, technology and global business services, creative industries and sport, and logistics and smart infrastructure.
The question is not simply how AI will affect these industries. It is how we can use AI to make them more productive, competitive and capable of generating employment.
AI can support precision agriculture, expand healthcare services, improve mining productivity and safety, personalise tourism, enable new financial products and create new opportunities in the creative industries and sport.
These are not predictions about what will inevitably happen. They are opportunities South Africa can deliberately pursue.
Turning AI4Jobs Into Action
This is why AI4Jobs needs to become more than a slogan. It should be a practical national economic initiative identifying where AI can create jobs, businesses and new economic opportunities — and bringing together the people and institutions capable of turning those opportunities into action.
The first step is listening to those closest to the changing workplace. The Future of Jobs Summit is convening leading CHROs and People executives to identify which jobs are changing, which capabilities are emerging, where the greatest opportunities lie and what South Africa needs to do to prepare its workforce.
The goal is to bring together 50 leading voices and turn their collective experience into an AI4Jobs CHRO Perspective.
The second is the AI4Jobs Map, identifying emerging occupations, skills, business opportunities and growth areas across the Next10 economy.
Its purpose is not simply to estimate jobs AI might displace, but to identify where AI can strengthen existing economic capabilities and where new enterprises and industries could emerge.
The third is an AI4Jobs Challenge, bringing companies, entrepreneurs and innovators together to identify practical ways to use AI to increase productivity while creating new products, services and employment.
The final component is an AI4Jobs Compact, bringing business, government, education, technology companies and other stakeholders together around practical commitments to develop AI capability, support entrepreneurship, expand opportunity and build the workforce required for the next economy.
Together, these initiatives can shift the conversation from predicting AI's impact on employment to deliberately expanding employment.
South Africa has spent decades discussing the jobs we have lost and the jobs we need to create. AI gives us an opportunity to change that conversation. Instead of asking only what AI will take, we should ask what we can create with AI.
The future of work will not be determined by AI alone. It will be determined by what human beings choose to do with it.
AI4Jobs is a simple proposition: use AI to make people more capable, businesses more productive and South Africa more competitive — and turn that capability into jobs, enterprises and industries for the future.
So the national question should no longer be: “How many jobs will AI take?” It should be: “What will South Africa build with AI — and how many jobs will we create by doing it?” That is the conversation we need to start now. AI is coming. The question is what South Africa chooses to build with it.
Dr Nik Eberl is the founder and executive chair: The Future of Jobs Summit™ (Official T20 Side Event). He is also the author of Nation of Champions: How South Africa won the World Cup of Destination Branding).
**The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Media Group.