South Africa is leading Africa in generative AI adoption, but the real opportunity lies not in using AI for everyday tasks, but in fundamentally changing how work gets done.

Michael Avery spoke to Ravi Bhat, Microsoft’s Commercial Solutions and AI Officer, about the rapid evolution of AI in banking and the shift towards an increasingly agentic workforce. They explored how banks, such as Investec, can move from AI pilots to meaningful, organisation-wide adoption, the role of AI in transforming customer experiences and legacy systems, and what the rise of AI means for junior professionals and the future of work.

South Africa has no shortage of entrepreneurial ambition - so why are so many businesses struggling to survive and scale? Michael Avery was joined by Angus Bowmaker-Falconer, research fellow at Stellenbosch Business School and co-author of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report, and Prof Natanya Meyer, acting SARChI Chair in Entrepreneurship Education at the University of Johannesburg.

They explored SA’s entrepreneurship crisis, unpacking the systemic barriers holding businesses back - from red tape and fragmented government support to access to finance, markets and infrastructure - and discussed what needs to change to create a stronger environment for entrepreneurs to start, survive and grow.

To understand the investment opportunities shaping the third quarter, Michael Avery spoke to Anchor Capital Chief Investment Officers Peter Armitage and Nolan Wapenaar. They unpacked whether the scale of AI investment represented sustainable growth or signs of a bubble, where value could still be found in South African equities and bonds, and how investors could navigate geopolitical uncertainty, shifting interest-rate expectations and improving local reform momentum.