Maureen Costello, VP for UK, Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa at Google Cloud, with Discovery founder and group CEO Adrian Gore. Google's Johannesburg Cloud Region is expected to contribute $90.6 billion (R1.7 trillion) in additional gross economic output and support almost 315 000 jobs in SA by 2030.This, as African businesses accelerate the adoption of cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) to transform their operations.The projections were announced by Maureen Costello, VP for UK, Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa at Google Cloud, during the Google Cloud Summit, in Johannesburg this week. Costello said the continent's AI landscape has shifted beyond experimentation, with enterprises now deploying AI to solve practical business challenges.“African enterprises have moved decisively past the initial phases of AI experimentation. Powered by our Johannesburg Cloud Region, leading organisations like Vodacom, Discovery, Pepkor and Naspers are establishing the essential framework to build and deploy autonomous agents that solve uniquely African challenges in real-world environments." See also The comments reflect a broader shift among African enterprises, which are increasingly integrating AI into core business functions, from customer engagement and healthcare, to financial services and retail operations.At the event, Google unveiled a SA-based Digital Exchange Port and a series of new AI, start-up and digital skills initiatives to accelerate Africa's AI ecosystem and expand access to advanced technologies across the continent.Telecommunications giant Vodacom and financial services group Discovery used the summit to showcase how cloud computing, AI and data analytics are supporting their long-term business strategies.For Vodacom, AI is becoming increasingly important as the operator manages one of the continent's largest customer bases. Speaking during a fireside chat at the summit, Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub said consolidating the company's data on Google Cloud’s BigQuery platform is laying the foundation for more advanced AI capabilities, while improving operational efficiency.“We're processing 237 million customers, 103 million financial services customers and we're processing something like $526 billion of transactions annually. That means we have a lot of data. How we harness the data properly, especially in a generative AI world, is extremely important to us.”Joosub said the platform provides more than cloud infrastructure, combining AI capabilities, cyber security features and local data residency that support the operator's digital transformation strategy.He added that Vodacom wants to use AI to improve customer experiences, while expanding access to AI technologies across Africa, including for small businesses and developers.“I'm very passionate about how we make it possible for small businesses to demystify generative AI and really take full advantage of it. One of the things that we've been asking you for is to partner with us on how we drive that at mass scale, empowering people and specifically developers. Giving them the right tools so they can learn and take full advantage of Google Cloud, Gemini and the different solutions that you've come up with.”Discovery is also embedding AI more deeply into its business, using the technology to strengthen its Vitality platform and deliver increasingly personalised healthcare interventions.Founder and group CEO Adrian Gore told attendees at the summit that AI is enabling a shift from broad wellness programmes, to tailored recommendations based on an individual's behaviour, health profile and risk factors.“AI has now created the opportunity for a very different world of proactive, hyper-personalised intervention. The ability to isolate what intervention people need requires a very different level of computational power. AI now has the opportunity, working with Google, to really hyper-personalise that capability.”According to Gore, combining Discovery's health data with advanced AI models will allow the company to provide more precise coaching, targeted incentives and personalised interventions designed to improve long-term health outcomes.He stressed that protecting customer information remains fundamental as AI becomes more deeply embedded in healthcare services.“We treat trust as absolutely non-negotiable, as is Google. Working with Google Cloud gives us the ability to scale in a different way, but our members know their data is kept in a very personal way. It is never, ever violated.”Looking beyond operational efficiencies with AI, Gore said: "Focus on your business model. Focus on how you make your products better and how you solve human problems. The potential to make society better is enormous.”