South African IT leaders have called for a more thoughtful approach to artificial intelligence in software development, and urged organizations to consider the technology as “a power tool for skilled engineers” rather than a crutch for the inexperience.
Speaking at the 2026 CIO Day at the Marriott Hotel in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, technology leaders explored which leadership changes can no longer be negotiated for chief information officers under the theme “The Agility Imperative.”
Nicole Borges, CIO of global markets at Standard Bank Group, and Paskaran Pather, executive of hospitality, manufacturing and pharma at Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa, opened the session by highlighting three important changes in the role of CIOs – adding value for customers, building capabilities around those outcomes and becoming business architects rather than order takers.
Borges said CIOs are moving from being “obsessed with systems or applications” to having a deeper understanding of customer outcomes and the value chain. “How do we move away from being risk averse, and how do we make our business a business disruptor?” he asked. Pather said the CIO needs to become the architect of the business. “Stop waiting for the business to define requirements,” he said.
Many speakers emphasized that AI is rewriting the rules of enterprise technology faster than humans – boards are asking tough questions and old approaches to leadership are no longer sufficient.
Kevin Wilson, general manager of IT group at Stefanutti Stocks Construction, said no one executive can accomplish the transformation alone. “It's not something you can take on alone 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 centers than the rest of Africa combined.
“We're busy building the tallest wind farm in Africa. I'm building two half-gigawatt plants in solar. So renewable energy is my second strongest division. South Africa must support local models, languages and open-source ecosystems while removing real barriers to 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 authorities. One leader said, “If we get this right, we won't just import AI from the global North, we will export African-made AI that really understands African problems.” Another framed the strategic choice as a question of sovereignty: whether to “sign up with someone who is going to own our future – or build it here first.”
CIOs also raised concerns about the emerging skills gap among junior developers due to over-reliance on AI coding assistants. While tools like generative AI can boost productivity and speed up delivery, leaders warn 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 leave out the fundamentals, you are building critical systems on very shaky ground,” said Colin Govender, chief operating officer of Altron Group.
According to executives, an over-reliance on AI risks creating a generation of developers that can ship code faster but struggle to debug complex systems, make good architectural decisions or identify security vulnerabilities. Long-term implications include risks to delivery quality, operational flexibility and the broader engineering talent pipeline.
Many companies are responding by investing in strict code review practices, formal training programs, and clear guardrails on when and how AI can be used in critical systems. Without these measures, leaders argued, organizations could achieve short-term efficiency at the expense of long-term capacity and governance.