Daily Maverick partners with Cape Town summit to champion informed dialogue on AI

Daily Maverick

05-06-2025

The new AI Empowered summit in August aims to make artificial intelligence accessible and accountable to ordinary professionals, educators, creatives and citizens – using AI to think bigger, move faster and lead faster.
Daily Maverick is proud to announce its support for a new summit focused on making artificial intelligence (AI) accessible, actionable and relevant for South Africans. AI Empowered (AIE) will take place on 7 and 8 August 2025 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
How do we prepare for a future we don't fully understand?
As AI accelerates into every part of our lives, South Africans need more than buzzwords. We need clarity, access and serious conversation.
It's easy to feel like AI is something happening out there – in techland, in code, in jobs that don't look like yours. But AI is already shaping how we work, how we learn and how we're governed. And in a country like South Africa – where inequality, unemployment and institutional fragility run deep – it's not a trend to observe; it's a force to understand, urgently.
PwC South Africa's 'Value in Motion' report estimates that AI could add R129-billion to the country's GDP by 2030, with Africa as a whole standing to gain up to R1.9-trillion. The sectors with the greatest potential impact? Healthcare, education, financial services, agriculture and government.
But that future doesn't build itself. And if we don't engage critically with what AI is and what it isn't, we risk repeating the mistakes of every other digital divide.
Bringing AI down to Earth
That's what makes this summit worth noticing – not for its glitz, but for its grounding.
Inspired by the Entrepreneurs' Organization Cape Town, AIE is attempting to make AI accessible and accountable to ordinary professionals, educators, creatives and citizens. It positions itself as a summit about humans, using AI to think bigger, move faster and lead faster.
Over two days, AIE will host conversations that go beyond the hype and into the real questions facing South Africans and the world today.
With input from local and global thinkers in ethics, policy, education, tech and law, AIE is not selling a product; it's opening a conversation.
What's on the table?
Yes, there'll be a programme – three stages, 1,500 attendees, keynote speeches, panels and workshops. There'll be big names like Western Cape premier Alan Winde, AI ethics advocate Nazareen Ebrahim and Shoprite CTO Chris Shortt. And, yes, there's a track on how AI is already transforming business strategy, law, creative industries and climate science.
But the real value might be in the tone: less promise, more proof. Less marketing, more meaning.
AI in a South African context
According to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs report, 44% of core job skills are expected to change in the next five years due to automation and AI. South Africa, with its complex labour market and education challenges, can't afford to sleepwalk through that shift.
At the same time, AI presents enormous opportunities for scale and reach. Already, homegrown innovation is using AI for language translation in education, telemedicine in rural clinics and agricultural optimisation in drought-stricken provinces.
What's needed now is not just policy, but participation.
Why Daily Maverick is watching closely
At Daily Maverick, we don't partner lightly. We're here because we believe that a better-informed public is the foundation of any future worth having. And AI, like climate change or inequality, is now a civic issue, not just a technological one.
Join the conversation
If you're curious, cautious or just craving clarity. Because South Africa can't afford to wait for others to define the future.