South African IT leaders have called for a more deliberate approach to artificial intelligence in software development, urging organizations to treat the technology as “a power tool for skilled engineers” rather than a crutch for inexperience.
Speaking at the 2026 CIO Day at the Marriott Hotel in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, technology leaders explored what leadership shifts are now non-negotiable for chief information officers under the theme “The Agility Imperative.”
Nicole Borges, CIO for global markets at Standard Bank Group, and Paskaran Pather, executive for hospitality, manufacturing and pharma at Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa, opened the session by highlighting three pivotal shifts in the CIO role — adding value for clients, building capabilities around those outcomes, and becoming business architects rather than order-takers.
Borges said CIOs are moving away from “obsessing about systems or applications” to deeply understanding client outcomes and the value chain. “How do we move away from the risk avoiders, and how do we enable our business to become business disruptors?” she asked. Pather added that CIOs needed to be architects of business. “Stop waiting for the business to define requirements,” he said.
Several speakers emphasized that AI is rewriting the rules of enterprise technology faster than humans can adapt — with boards asking harder questions and the old approaches to leadership no longer sufficient.
Kevin Wilson, group general manager of IT for Stefanutti Stocks Construction, said no single executive can navigate the change alone. “This is not something that you can take on by yourself anymore. You have to put a team together, and everyone is wearing different hats,” he said. He argued that South Africa is uniquely positioned to become “the next AI powerhouse on the continent,” noting that the country hosts more data centres than the rest of Africa combined.
“We’re busy with the construction of the tallest wind farm in Africa. I’m building two half-a-gigawatt plants in solar. So renewables is my second strongest division. South Africa must back local models, languages and open-source ecosystems, while navigating real constraints in energy, skills, and governance,” Wilson said.
The case for South Africa as a regional AI hub focused on African realities — from local languages and low-bandwidth environments to financial inclusion and public health — was echoed by other executives. “If we get this right, we won’t just import AI from the global north, we’ll export African-built AI that actually understands African problems,” one leader said. Another framed the strategic choice as a question of sovereignty: whether to “sign up with somebody who’s going to own our future — or build it here first.”
CIOs also raised concerns about an emerging skills gap among junior developers, driven by over-reliance on AI coding assistants. While tools such as generative AI can boost productivity and accelerate delivery, leaders warned that many early-career developers are skipping the hard work of mastering core engineering fundamentals.
“AI should accelerate good engineers, not replace basic engineering disciplines. If you skip the fundamentals, you’re building critical systems on very shaky ground,” said Collin Govender, Altron Group chief operating officer.
According to executives, over-reliance on AI risks creating a generation of developers who can ship code quickly but struggle to debug complex systems, make sound architectural decisions or identify security vulnerabilities. The longer-term implications include risks to delivery quality, operational resilience and the broader engineering talent pipeline.
Many companies are responding by investing in stricter code review practices, formal training programmes and clear guardrails on when and how AI can be used in critical systems. Without these measures, leaders argued, organizations may secure short-term efficiency at the cost of long-term capability and governance.
