TCS+

AI is the defining technology of our era. At one extreme, it fuels fears of job losses, robot wars and computers ruling over human beings. At the other, it holds out hope: curing diseases such as cancer, bolstering global food security and even freeing people from the need to work.

Old Mutual was the headline sponsor of this year's Singularity Summit South Africa, held on 21-22 October at the Sandton Convention Centre, where these questions took centre stage.

In this episode of TCS+, Celiwe Ross, group chief human capital and corporate affairs officer at Old Mutual, looks back at the summit. She discusses how companies, their managers and employees should approach integrating the technology as AI becomes more deeply embedded in the workplace.

In the interview, Ross discusses:

- Why a 181-year-old insurer sponsors a future-focused event like the Singularity Summit, and how Old Mutual's founding story shapes its approach to disruption;

- How AI is changing the role of the chief human resources officer, from workforce planning to the design of work, reskilling and organisational change;

- Why leaders should look at AI through three lenses: the work, the worker and, only later, the workforce;

- How AI could eventually change a company's operating model, and why that is still a distant reality, especially in South Africa;

- Why experimentation is essential to building an AI strategy;

- The usage trap: why some organisations have high adoption rates that do not translate into productivity gains or a return on investment;

- Emerging global trends in the use of AI agents, and what South Africa can learn from them;

- How Old Mutual is approaching AI training;

- Why judgment, empathy and vulnerability are becoming more important leadership skills, and how organisations can help people build them; and

- Where South Africa and Africa stand on AI adoption.

Ross also argues that, done properly, AI should create more opportunities and career paths, not fewer, and that leaders should approach the AI debate in terms of capacity rather than headcount.

Don't miss the discussion.

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TCS+ episodes are sponsored

Small and medium enterprises are under constant pressure to stay nimble and competitive in a tough economic climate, and technology that runs smoothly is a big part of how they manage it.

In this second episode of the Mac for SME series, brought to you by iStore Business, Sudesh Pillay, executive head of iStore Business South Africa, and Kevin McLennan, founder and CEO of PR and marketing firm The Prophecy Group, discuss the value of the Apple ecosystem as a productivity driver for small businesses.

Pillay and McLennan delve into:

● Why seamless IT experience is important for SMEs where resource maximisation is key to success;

● How quickly technology is changing, and whether investing in the Apple ecosystem can futureproof hardware against advances in AI;

● The support available to SMEs when upgrades become unavoidable;

● Whether moving employees to a new operating system is as daunting as it sounds;

● How important native data protection is for small businesses that struggle with security and compliance; and

● Which software subscriptions, beyond AI tools, small businesses can avoid paying for.

Don’t miss the discussion.

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TCS+ episodes are sponsored

Phone calls, e-mails and in-person conversations were once the only ways businesses could talk to their customers. Social media changed that. Marketing, customer acquisition, sales and support now happen across a growing number of channels. That brings clear benefits, but it can also leave businesses with a fragmented communication ecosystem that hurts the customer experience.

In this episode of TCS+, Natalie van der Merwe, head of telephony at Vox, unpacks why an omnichannel approach matters, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Topics covered in the discussion include:

* What "omnichannel" means and why businesses need it now

* The benefits for SMEs and their customers

* How customer expectations of business communication have changed

* Why continuity across channels matters to customers

* What a poor or disconnected experience can cost in loyalty and reputation

* How a fragmented communication ecosystem disrupts a business internally

* Whether SMEs are right to see omnichannel as complex

* The role of AI in business communications

* Why customers should be involved in designing new channels

* The regulatory considerations businesses should keep in mind about the kinds of data exchanged on different platforms

Van der Merwe also explains how to make the business case for investing in omnichannel, and advises SMEs on how to start improving their communication ecosystems.

TCS+ episodes are sponsored

In this episode of TCS+, brought to you by Arctic Wolf, Jason Oehley, the company's country sales manager, and Andre Den Hond, senior systems engineer, talk about why South Africa is bearing the brunt of ransomware in Africa and what businesses can do about it.

The pair unpack an Interpol report that found 92% of ransomware detections on the continent are in South Africa. Oehley explains that the country's high connectivity, big financial services sector and large mid-market are part of the reason, along with a tactical rather than proactive approach to security.

Den Hond explains how agentic AI systems can automate the attack chain, adapt when an exploit fails and never tire, putting small and medium-sized enterprises squarely in the crosshairs.

Watch the video

The pair also explain why the time between a vulnerability being identified and exploited has collapsed, why attackers are increasingly stealing data rather than encrypting it and why cyber insurance often doesn't cover the costs that hurt most.

Other points discussed include:

Why SMEs that supply bigger companies are a back door for attackers, including the recent breach of a group of South African insurers;

The hidden costs of a breach, including downtime averaging 22 days, lost income, idle payroll and reputational damage;

A customer that put off a security purchase because of the cost and was hit months later for much more;

How to measure the financial impact of cyber risk, and why the return-on-investment argument matters at board level;

Proactive versus reactive security, and why there is no silver bullet;

Whether South Africa's regulators are keeping up, and the prospect of directors' liability; and

Why building a 24/7 security operations centre in-house rarely makes financial sense

Don't miss this practical conversation about turning cyber risk into terms that decision-makers understand.

Specops Software’s Darren James explains why identity checks alone no longer stop determined attackers.

Traditional approaches to access security no longer hold up in hybrid, cloud-first environments – and AI is widening the gap.

In this episode, host Kevin Smith speaks to Darren James, senior product manager at Specops Software, about the distance between how organisations secure access and how people actually work.

Businesses have poured money into identity-based controls – passwords, multi-factor authentication, zero-trust initiatives – yet breaches keep rising, because attackers increasingly exploit trusted identities rather than technical vulnerabilities. An intruder holding legitimate credentials looks like an authorised user and can operate undetected.

That points to a shift in security thinking: verifying the user’s identity is no longer enough. Access decisions must also account for the device being used, its security posture and whether trust should hold for the length of a session.

Working through a real-world breach, James shows how a single compromised account escalates into a serious incident, and where a more contextual approach to access control could break the attack chain before damage is done. The discussion reframes zero trust as an ongoing process rather than a one-time authentication event, and makes the case for layered verification.

He also looks ahead to automated attacks and the rise of non-human identities – service accounts and AI agents among them. As organisations lean harder on autonomous systems, identity-centric models will face pressures they were never designed for.

The executive takeaway is this: the cybersecurity battleground is shifting from identity verification to continuous trust. In an era of AI-driven threats and hybrid work, organisations need to stop asking “who is accessing the system?” and start asking, continuously, “should this access still be trusted?”

Don’t miss the discussion.