South Africa is still a cash-based economy, says Optasia. (Image source: iStock) Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered fintech company Optasia is stepping up its push into South Africa, betting that AI-driven credit scoring can unlock financial services for millions of people who remain underserved by the country’s formal banking sector. Speaking to ITWeb in an interview yesterday,…
The Unlimited Child has launched an AI-powered app to assist learners in low-resource environments. The Unlimited Child, a South African early childhood development (ECD) non-profit organisation, has launched an AI-powered app designed to provide personalised coaching, classroom support and monitoring for practitioners. The app, built for low-resource and offline environments, delivers AI-generated development plans, classroom preparation tools,…
Eighteen months ago, one of South Africa’s largest retailers wasn’t worried about AI. Onboarding worked. Compliance checks passed audits. Fraud was a known, managed cost of doing business. Then a syndicate found them. The attack looked ordinary. Customers submitted genuine South African ID documents. Except they weren’t genuine anymore. Using AI, fraudsters had altered key…
Woolworths is using AI to simplify meal planning. Woolworths has unveiled an AI-powered food assistant that uses conversational AI to help customers find recipes, plan meals and shop for ingredients through its mobile app. Called My Woolies Chef, the tool will be made available to a limited group of MyDifference loyalty programme members from September…
On 20 May 2026, ATS Network Management, in partnership with SolarWinds, successfully hosted the SolarWinds World Tour – Partner Session at the prestigious Sarova Stanley Hotel in Nairobi. The event delivered a full-house experience, bringing together partners from across East Africa for an engaging day of insights, innovation and collaboration. From thought-provoking sessions to networking…
The second phase of the Ministerial Seminar on New Media Capacity Building for Women Officials from Belt and Road Countries officially commenced on Sunday in Changsha, Hunan Province, with participants set to gain first-hand experience of how China is revolutionising the media industry through artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies. The seminar follows a week-long…
i2c Inc., a global financial technology innovator, today announced it has won the “Best AI-Powered Fraud Detection Solution by a Vendor” award at The Digital Banker Middle East & Africa Innovation Awards 2026. The award recognizes i2c’s innovative use of artificial intelligence to help financial institutions and fintechs strengthen fraud prevention, improve authorization performance, and…
AI phishing a growing threat, warns Cisco’s Talos. AI-powered phishing was the biggest threat observed in the first quarter of this year, according to a statement from Cisco’s Talos intelligence research group. “Almost nine out of 10 organisations across South Africa experienced an AI-related security incident and lack visibility into how threat actors are using…
Cliff de Wit, Chief Innovation Officer at Accelera Digital Group (ADG). Across the globe, financial hubs are facing a new class of cyber threat: deepfake as a service. What began as crude impersonations has evolved into industrialised deception with AI-generated voices authorising fraudulent payments, synthetic executives joining video calls and cloned identities breaching onboarding systems….
Kui Zheng, CEO, Huawei Enterprise South Africa. While networks in key sectors such as education, transport and healthcare continue to feel the transformational impact of agentic AI – the same technology used to spearhead sophisticated cyber attacks – platforms and solutions with AI capabilities are being developed to help protect network infrastructure, says Huawei SA….
