Saturday, November 9African Digital Business Magazine

Tag: artificial intelligence in business

Business

Data democracy, much like political democracy, seeks to empower everyone for transformative change

By Upuli de Abrew, Co-Founder and Director at Insight Consulting Democratisation of data enables a new kind of AI: Augmented intelligence In January, a Time Magazine article called 2024 a make-or-break year for democracy, with more than half of the planet’s population heading to the polls. South Africans saw peaceful democracy at play when the ruling party lost its majority for the first time since 1994. Dozens of other countries had elections with varying degrees of peaceful acceptance of the results. The “year of democracy’s” climax is no doubt the US general election. While politics around the world can be described as messy, the goal of democracy, the end – as it were – is equal rights for all. It is the democratisation of choice, voice, opportunity and more. That, despite challenge...
Africa Travel

Following record figures in H1 2023, Club Med has achieved another record-breaking semester

Following record figures in 2023, Club Med has achieved a new record performance for the first half of 2024. In an increasingly challenging French and global context, Club Med has again demonstrated the success and relevance of its strategy to move glocal and upmarket, and its profound business model transformation. Henri Giscard d’Estaing, President of Club Med, stated: "This semester marks a decisive turning point: Club Med's move upmarket is now achieved, with 100% of its Resorts now upscale or very upscale. I am very proud of the collective transformation accomplished by our teams over the past two decades. Being the employer of choice in the hospitality industry is one of our main priorities, which is contributing decisively to our success. During the first half of 2024, Club Med...
Business, Main

Why Africa’s Approach to Financial Risk Management Needs to Change

By Reggie Mlangeni, Head of Sales and Structuring at Absa Corporate and Investment Banking When detached from the intricate realities of Africa’s economic environment, financial risk management strategies that may prove successful elsewhere often falter.  For nations grappling with rising levels of sovereign debt, unpredictable regulatory uncertainties, and the far-reaching repercussions of political transitions, traditional frameworks, often borrowed from more stable economies, fail to account for the volatility and complexity inherent in many African markets – necessitating a re-evaluation of how financial risks are quantified and managed on the continent. Recent developments in several countries have been particularly illustrative of this. In Ghana, faced with substantial revenue co...
Tech

5 Game-Changing Sales Tools to Eliminate Pain Points and Explode Sales Growth

AI and other Tech are fast becoming the biggest sales enablers on the block Sales is a pressure game. You’re juggling leads, chasing targets, and dealing with the endless cycle of follow-ups. But high-performers don’t just work harder—they work smarter by leveraging tech that delivers results. Jacqueline van Rooijen, Owner and Business Growth Consultant at Ycagel, examines five common sales pain points that can be solved through easily accessible tools that anyone can start using today. Additionally, she provides real-world examples of companies that are achieving success with them. 1. Generic outreach with low conversion rates The Win: Personalise your Pitches with ChatGPT and Copy.ai The How: AI-powered content generators like ChatGPT and Copy.ai help you scale personalisation. Th...
South Africa News, Tech

Security, Ethics and Opportunity – AI in South Africa

Jacques du Bruyn, Managing Director at Flume Digital Marketing Don’t panic – AI isn’t coming for your job. What it is doing is delivering new opportunities, creating new jobs and making work simpler for millions of people. Like the viral quote from Joanna Maciejewska about wanting AI to do the laundry and dishes so she can work on art, rather than having it create art and writing so she can do the housework – which has been interpreted many ways – the opportunity can work both ways. Take the Gap You can work hard to understand how AI operates and get to the front of the Prompt Engineer queue, capitalising on an opportunity to be the person who is able to prompt AI to deliver the specific result – an image, music, video, research or copy – that a client needs. You can also use AI to del...
Tech

AI’s double-edged sword requires a human security approach

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has ushered in both promise and peril for organisations needing to combat cyber threat actors. As ESET Southern Africa Chief Technology Officer, Adrian Stanford, notes, “AI is reshaping the battlefield between cyber attackers and defenders, offering new tools to both sides.” The double-edged generative AI (gen AI) sword can be used by malicious actors to craft sophisticated phishing emails, spam, and disinformation campaigns, amplifying the scale and effectiveness of cyberattacks. However, defenders can also harness AI for threat intelligence research, improved threat detection capabilities, and streamlined incident response. It's a battle of wits and algorithms, where innovation is the currency. AI cybersecurity is surging According to the World Economic Fo...
Tech

The adtech data revolution: The changing shape of the industry in the era of AI and data

Adtech organisations sit at the very edge of innovation and the evolution of marketing. Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, the rise of data alongside the demise of the third-party cookie, have reimagined contextual messaging, creativity, and campaigns at scale. Over the past year, the deal volume among adtech and martech companies saw an increase of 82% year-on-year despite concerns that the sector wouldn’t cope with the changes in third-party cookies and the introduction of privacy-focused targeting solutions. This is largely due to the industry’s ability to embrace emergent technologies as well as its access to and understanding of data, says Gil Sperling, co-founder and CEO of data-driven adtech company Flow. First-party data is one of the most significant trends emerging ...
Tech

Unlocking AI’s potential in 2024

Tarsus on Demand highlights the importance of leveraging AI properly in 2024, and how BI can provide the vital clean data for such solutions to work effectively. 2023 has seen the phenomenal rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), the latest in a long line of AI technologies designed to help organisations to improve their business. And there is little doubt that the promise AI holds is vast - from streamlined operations and personalised customer experiences to groundbreaking innovations. As with any new technology, the hype around it is as large as its potential business benefits. Despite this, an increasing number of organisations are making efforts to implement it into their business processes. The critical challenge with such implementations, explains Othelo Vieira, Technica...