Young South Africans face an AI dilemma: Opportunity for some, threat for others - IOL

Young South Africans are embracing AI, but many remain worried about whether they will be able to find work as the technology reshapes the skills employers need.

Statistics show a young generation that is increasingly online and using new technologies, yet remains anxious about its place in a world being reshaped by artificial intelligence. That concern was addressed recently during a dialogue arguing that South Africa has spoken enough about AI – now is the time to deliver.

Almost one in two young people in South Africa’s labour force cannot find work. Statistics South Africa’s second-quarter 2026 Quarterly Labour Force Survey put youth unemployment among those aged 15 to 34 at 47.4%, compared with an overall unemployment rate of 33.6%. The number of unemployed young people rose by 264,000 to 5 million.

As artificial intelligence begins reshaping the skills employers want, that gap formed the backdrop to the 5th Annual Future of Work Dialogue, hosted by Tshwane University of Technology’s (TUT) Institute for the Future of Work (IFOW) in Pretoria from 30 September to 1 October.

Under the theme “Turning the Developmental Tide: Advancing Africa’s Resilient Future Through AI-Enabled Innovation Pathways”, government, business, academia and labour were asked to move from debating what AI might mean to deciding what institutions must do now.

“The future of work is not a conversation about the future anymore. It is already here,” said Tseliso Mohlomi, a senior director in TUT’s Office of the Vice-Chancellor. “The young South African searching for work today cannot wait another five years for institutions to perfect their strategies.”

Young South Africans are not waiting for permission. An OECD and Cisco study found that 45.4% of South Africans actively use generative AI, while more than three-quarters of respondents considered it useful. A Top Employers Institute survey found that 68% of South African Gen Z employees believe AI will have a positive impact on work, while 82% expect it to help them acquire new skills.

A different mood exists among those still outside the workforce. The African Leadership University’s 2025 survey found that only 39% of South African school leavers felt confident about finding a job after their education, while just 36% saw AI as an opportunity for their career. The biggest worry was that 62% feared there would not be enough jobs.

The contrast is notable: for someone with a job, AI can look like a productivity boost. For someone without one, it can look like another obstacle.

Awareness was another problem. Research by the Global Center on AI Governance found that more than 70% of South Africans had little or no familiarity with the term “artificial intelligence”, with social media and television or radio among their main sources of information rather than formal education.

Using a chatbot is one thing, but having the skills employers are hiring for is another.

South Africa has no shortage of strategies on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), digital transformation and skills development. IFOW argued that the problem was coordinated implementation.

At the 2025 dialogue, participants proposed a National AI Implementation Council to coordinate government, universities and industry around a measurable, time-bound roadmap. This year, organisers returned to the questions behind that idea:

Who accounts when agreed commitments are not delivered?

Employers need fast-changing skills, while universities and colleges can struggle to update curricula quickly enough. IFOW called for employers to flag emerging skills earlier, faster curriculum adaptation, more apprenticeships and workplace learning, and greater industry investment in the pipelines from which businesses recruit.

The skills identified as being in demand include cybersecurity, cloud computing, AI literacy and data engineering, with deeper capability needed in microelectronics, advanced manufacturing and embedded AI systems.

The dialogue also examined Africa’s place in the global technology economy. Organisers said African economies needed to build the skills, enterprises, research capacity and intellectual property to participate across technology value chains, rather than simply consume technology built elsewhere.

The economic footprint of technology platforms was already significant. Evidence presented at the 2025 dialogue showed that one mobility platform estimated its South African operations generated about R17 billion in economic activity in 2023 and supported around 100,000 earners, while a global search and cloud company put its local contribution at roughly R118 billion to GDP.

The challenge, organisers said, was converting that adoption into domestic capability, productive enterprises and jobs.

Nobody claimed AI would fix unemployment alone.

“South Africa’s unemployment crisis will not be solved by AI, nor by any single council, conference or policy paper,” Mohlomi said. But he rejected “a false choice between an AI-enabled economy and a jobs-rich, inclusive one”, calling instead for the country to organise itself “deliberately enough to shape this technological transition in South Africa’s interests, expanding participation, building African capability, protecting workers and equipping young people to compete.”

The aim was a shared framework naming responsibilities, resources, timelines and measurable actions.

“Implementation is not the less glamorous part of strategy,” Mohlomi said. “For South Africa, implementation has become the strategy.”

For a generation already using the tools, the future of AI-enabled work may look more efficient, while that future seems less attainable for those still hunting for jobs. The test for industry leaders is whether implementation arrives fast enough to help address the unemployment crisis.