TCS - The TechCentral Show

ADG’s Cliff de Wit on why the next management challenge is overseeing teams of autonomous software agents.

Not long ago, organisations were experimenting with generative AI to draft e-mails, summarise documents and answer questions. Today agentic AI is changing what the technology is for.

In a conversation on TechCentral’s TCS+ podcast, Cliff de Wit, MD for South Africa and group chief innovation officer at Accelera Digital Group (ADG), argued that the real story is not machines replacing people but a fundamental shift in how work gets done — and where humans create value.

Rather than completing individual tasks on command, AI agents can be given an objective and left to determine how best to achieve it. De Wit illustrated this with a know-your-customer (KYC) use case in which agentic AI is already automating complex workflows and accelerating business outcomes.

AI is no longer simply a tool that assists workers. Increasingly, it is a digital workforce in its own right.

In a country with one of the world's highest youth unemployment rates, concerns about automation are understandable. But De Wit challenges the idea that AI should be viewed purely as a job-replacement technology.

"The human skills involved in business are fundamentally changing, but the basics of business still remain," he said.

Businesses will still need people to solve problems, exercise judgment, build relationships and drive innovation. What changes is how those outcomes are achieved: as routine and administrative work is automated, workers move up to activities where uniquely human skills matter most.

The sharper risk is distributional. Without investment in education, training and digital skills, AI's productivity gains could widen existing inequalities — not because jobs disappear, but because opportunity concentrates among those who know how to work with the technology. AI literacy may soon matter to employability as much as computer literacy did during the digital revolution.

Organisations are already deploying agents into operational environments, in some cases slotting them into workforce structures alongside human employees. Leaders are no longer managing only people; they are managing mixed teams.

De Wit believes businesses are better prepared for this than they think. Companies have long used governance frameworks and risk controls to oversee human decision-making, and many of the same principles adapt to digital workers. Whether a decision is executed by a person or a system, accountability, escalation and oversight remain essential.

Which decisions should be delegated, then, and which should stay under human control? De Wit's answer comes down to risk, and he sets out a framework for categorising it. The future, on his reading, is unlikely to be fully autonomous. Successful organisations will run human-in-the-loop models in which AI handles execution while people supply direction, judgment and accountability.

De Wit is optimistic. Many local organisations are still experimenting, but a growing number are moving past pilots to solve real problems and generate measurable value.

For leaders, the question is no longer whether to adopt AI, but how to do so responsibly, effectively and inclusively. The future workforce will consist neither solely of humans nor solely of machines — it will consist of humans who know how to lead, govern and orchestrate digital labour.

And that future is arriving faster than many realise. Don’t miss a great discussion!

Communications regulator Icasa’s draft rapid deployment regulations – a critical intervention for the sector – risk failing unless the regulator brings municipalities into the process, according to Nomvuyiso Batyi, CEO of the Association of Comms & Technology (ACT).

Speaking on the TechCentral Show with TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod, Batyi said Icasa had consulted network operators and fibre companies but not the South African Local Government Association, which represents the municipalities that will have to apply the rules.

“You cannot just develop regulations without talking to all the parties,” she warned, arguing that Icasa should follow energy regulator Nersa’s approach to municipal engagement.

Asked when final rules might realistically be in place, she said 24 months – provided Icasa works through local government first.

On enforcement she was more optimistic. Section 21 of the Electronic Communications Act, amended in 2014, already empowers Icasa to set uniform procedures for permits and approvals at a reasonable fee, she said. “A lot of people may have missed the amendment.”

The gap is dispute resolution: the draft assumes disputes between licensees, leaving operators without recourse when a municipality refuses a way leave. At Icasa’s public hearings this month, ACT proposed binding municipal deadlines, deemed approval and damages claims for failing to respond to requests in time from telecoms providers.

ACT also objects to the detail in Icasa’s proposed national infrastructure database. Batyi supports mapping in principle but said the granularity sought would expose competitively sensitive information and create construction mafia and cybersecurity risks.

Beyond rapid deployment, Batyi listed four priorities on her plate: the newly finalised Rica framework agreement on Sim card verification, licence renewals by 2028, Icasa’s end-user and subscriber charter regulations and the Electronic Communications Amendment Bill – which she described as “embarrassing” in its current form.

ACT represents Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Cell C, Rain and Liquid Intelligent Technologies. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media

Optasia is on target to distribute more than US$6-billion in credit across its markets in 2026 – and it carries every cent of the default risk itself. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, CEO Salvador Anglada unpacks how the JSE’s biggest recent fintech listing actually works.

Formerly known as Channel VAS, Optasia was founded in 2012 as a single-country airtime credit provider. It listed on the JSE main board on 4 November 2025 at R19/share – top of the range, and oversubscribed several times. FirstRand took a 20.1% stake ahead of the IPO and has since raised it to 26.1%.

Today, Optasia’s AI-driven credit decisioning platform operates in 38 countries through mobile operators – MTN and Vodacom among them – and financial institutions, serving more than 120 million monthly active users and making 1.5 billion credit decisions a month. Microfinancing now generates 72% of revenue, overtaking the airtime advance business on which the company was built.

In the interview, with TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod, Anglada discusses:

• What happens in the 30 seconds it takes an unbanked customer in Accra to get a loan – and why partner banks, the “lenders on record”, carry none of the risk;

• The algorithms behind it: more than 5 000 data points per customer, models tailored to each market and a blended default rate of just 1.2% on unsecured loans with no collateral – and no blacklisting of defaulters;

• Optasia’s plans for South Africa, where Anglada sees 15-20 million people without proper access to credit – and why local banks will be the channel;

• The Nigerian regulatory dispute that suspended its airtime credit services – a suspension Anglada calls “a little bit aggressive”;

• Why Optasia chose the JSE over London, and how it works with FirstRand; and

• The road to 2030: new markets including Ethiopia, Egypt and Mozambique, plus SME lending, buy now, pay later and a “virtual credit card” now in testing.

Optasia reports interim results in September, with revenue guided up by more than 50%. Don’t miss the discussion!

Pick n Pay has switched on an AI shopping companion called Penny inside its asap! app, and in this episode of the TechCentral Show, retail executive for omnichannel Enrico Ferigolli takes editor Duncan McLeod through what it does and why it matters.

Built on Google's Gemini models, Penny lets customers build a grocery basket by asking for what they want in their own words – by voice, text or photo – instead of searching and scrolling. Tap the "Ask" button, request a carbonara recipe, and Penny returns the method alongside a carousel of options for each ingredient to drop into the basket. It handles re-orders, meal planning to a budget and ingredient substitutions, and it reads photographs, too: Ferigolli describes snapping a handwritten shopping list and having Penny build the basket from it.

In the conversation, Ferigolli is candid about the limits. Penny does not place orders yet – it assembles the basket and hands the customer back to checkout – and its language support, while broad, is stronger by voice than by text and still maturing for South Africa's African languages. He explains why Pick n Pay tested several large language models before settling on Gemini, how the system draws on the app's own search, order history and Smart Shopper data rather than plugging Gemini straight into its databases, and where a retail-media layer fits in.

For more detail on the launch, see TechCentral’s full report on Penny and how it works.

Ferigolli discusses:

• How conversational shopping changes the asap! experience

• Why Gemini won on accuracy, speed and cost

• What Penny can and can't do at launch

• The multilingual and multimodal ambitions behind it

• How the 2025 asap! rebuild set this up, and what comes next

Pick n Pay is "a little bit behind" in online grocery, Ferigolli concedes in the podcast – but with Penny and the features to follow, he reckons it will "get ahead really, really fast".

Don't miss the discussion.

South Africa has fewer than 400 public electric vehicle charging stations – up from zero just 15 years ago – and EV adoption remains stubbornly slow. Yet Charge, formerly known as Zero Carbon Charge, is betting big that a coast-to-coast network of off-grid, renewable-powered charging stations is exactly what’s needed to fire up the local market.

In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Joubert Roux, co-founder and director of Charge, joins TechCentral’s Nkosinathi Ndlovu to make the case for the company’s ambitious, R1.8-billion plan to roll out a charging station every 150km along South Africa’s national highways – and to explain why he believes the company is taking on “a timing risk, but not a business risk”.

Roux walks TechCentral through the December 2024 launch of Charge’s first site near Wolmaransstad and the unit economics underpinning the roll-out: just seven vehicles a day at each station are needed to reach Ebitda break-even. He also explains why every facility is designed to operate entirely off-grid, citing data showing that EVs charged on Eskom’s coal-heavy network emit 5.8 tonnes of carbon-dioxide a year, more than a comparable petrol car at 4.4 tonnes.

The conversation also tackles Charge’s unconventional fundraising strategy: a tokenised public offering on Mesh rather than a JSE listing, planned for June 2026. Roux argues that South Africa’s institutional capital is “extremely conservative” and that tokenisation will finally let ordinary investors into an infrastructure deal that has historically demanded R1-million minimums. The Development Bank of Southern Africa has already committed R100-million.

Roux and Ndlovu also discuss:

• How landowners hosting Charge stations receive 5% of charging revenue, and the rural economic development case that sits behind that model;

• The offtake agreement with transport aggregator Zimi covering 50% of capacity at upcoming N3 corridor sites;

• Charge’s formal objection to Sanral’s proposed policy giving it powers over businesses within 60m of national roads or 500m of interchanges, and the broader regulatory headwinds facing EV infrastructure;

• How BYD’s planned 1MW supercharger network and incumbent operators like GridCars – which already records 5 000 charge sessions a month – are reshaping the competitive landscape;

• Plans for 35MW truck-charging facilities and a long-term target of 120 stations across the national route network; and

• Roux’s prediction on when South Africa will hit its EV tipping point – and the two ingredients he says the market still needs: sub-R500 000 EVs and a genuinely reliable national charging network.

Don’t miss the discussion!