By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider 

In such a short space of time the phenomenon known as Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to form part of this evergrowing civilization. On 27 January 2026, the Consulate General of India Johannesburg in conjunction with the Ministry of External Affairs Economic Diplomacy Division, hosted the India-South Africa AI Dialogue which was held under the theme “Skills,jobs & the Future of Work”. The discussion was held at the Johannesburg Country Club, Woodmead. 

The intention of the discussion was to gather leading technology companies, Industry professionals as well as ecosystem stakeholders from both India and South Africa in order to exchange their perspectives with one another on how AI is shaping the future of employment, skills development and productivity within the workforce of the modern world. 

The discussion also emphasized on workforce transition and industry-led approaches to skills development. The discussion was led through a panel discussion of industry leaders and experts regarding AI in regards to workforce training.

 The keynote address was given by the High Commissioner of India Prabhat Kumar, as he expressed the emergence of Artificial Intelligence beckoning in the modern world and expressed the need to embrace the new changes and possibilities that it presents.

 “India’s engagement with technology has always been shaped by skill and diversity; India’s approach has consistently focused on democratising access to technology, growth and inclusion” said the High Commissioner in his keynote address. 

The High Commissioner emphasised India’s position in terms of making technological skills development accessible and inclusive for society at large instead of giving access solely to the elite. 

The panel discussion which was moderated by the Director of Cloud, Data and AI at Magicorp, Keith Kenneth, hosted a panel of industry leaders and stakeholders to exchange their perspectives on how Artificial Intelligence can change workforce training and skills Development in the global south.

 CHO of WITS Digital Hub Tshiamologong, Mark Harris addressed the issue that Artificial Intelligence is depriving people of jobs and emphasised that countries all over the world have had a problem with people having access to jobs before the concept of AI came into fruition. “Just about every job that we currently know about is going to be changed by AI,” said Harris in his remarks.

 “AI on a monthly basis, on a quarterly basis continues in new advances, as Kenneth said even for a veteran like me, it’s almost like the three month catch up about what’s new just to stay ahead of the trends” he added. 

“I also think it’s not good to think of AI on its own, because it’s three critical factors I would say. The one easiest, changing how we training people, to not train people to do traditional things but how they use AI to actually become good workers into the future…I think the second thing which we should never ignore is innovation…the third is more difficult and that is the jobs are not getting increased” Harris continued to elaborate. 

Kaushik Chatterjee, who serves as Senior Vice President and Region Head of Zensar Technologies, highlighted how India is currently bridging the economic gap in regards to AI.

 “I think one of the most important things we have seen is we are an industry that is constantly learning skills, at one point the technical skills had a half life of around a decade” said Chatterjee in his opening remarks.

 Kgomotso Lebele, who serves as Country Managing Director for Accenture,  spoke about how South Africa intends to solve the gap from a human resourcing perspective.

 “AI jobs in the market rose by 350% plus. Maybe you’ll say we’re starting from a low base. Compared 2024 to 2025 there is about 75% increase in AI jobs.” said Lebele in regards to South Africa’s growing AI market. 

Chief of Digital Transformation and Innovation Officer of SEDFA, Veronica Motloutsi, spoke on the morale of the current workforce in how they receive the introduction of AI and her perspective on jobs decreasing since the introduction of AI.

 “One of the key decisions that senior executives at the board have made is to identify what are the key use cases that we will intimate as an organisation…they talk about AI policy, but they don’t really focus on their most important use cases” said Motloutsi. 

 Ambassador Lead of AI in Gauteng, Tebogo Mamela, spoke about the changes that would need to be made from a skills perspective so that people can comfortably acclimate to AI training.

 “The learning process in the organisations needs to be redesigned, to include concepts about AI, the foundation of AI…AI is one of the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution,” Mamela highlighted in his perspective.

 The AI-Dialogue seminar will continue,highlighting the further perspectives on AI, such as security aspects and laws surrounding the technology to ensure safe usage.