The skills needed to work with artificial intelligence are changing faster than South Africa’s education system can adapt, leaving employers scrambling for talent as AI adoption accelerates across the economy.
Ana Alonso, Salesforce Senior Vice President and General Manager for Eastern Mediterranean, Israel and Africa, a global cloud-based software company with offices in Johannesburg and Morocco, warned about the gap between what businesses need and what universities are teaching.
“The gap is widening as AI technologies continue to evolve faster than traditional education systems can respond,” Alonso told TechCabal on the sidelines of the Agentforce World Tour Johannesburg event on Tuesday.
South African businesses are embracing AI faster than ever, but the country’s education system remains constrained by slow curriculum cycles and outdated qualification frameworks. As demand grows for AI specialists, cloud developers and automation experts, the skills gap will require closer collaboration between universities, government and the private sector.
Alonso noted that organisations are increasingly facing a mismatch between rapidly changing AI job requirements and qualification systems that can take years to update.
