BMW Group South Africa marked 20 years of its IT Hub in Menlyn, Pretoria, on Wednesday, revealing that a team based in the city built the AI systems now inspecting vehicles on BMW’s assembly lines around the world.
The hub, which started with 11 employees in 2006, has grown to more than 2 600 staff and is, according to BMW, its largest IT operation outside Germany.
The AI visual inspection system developed in Pretoria is deployed across BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce plants globally, with cameras mounted at assembly stations checking in real time whether parts have been correctly installed before a vehicle moves on.
BMW IT Hub described the system as “a production-critical application”.
The technology catches defects the human eye cannot reliably spot. In one example, cameras check whether a gasket is correctly installed and crack-free. The system also uses acoustic detection to identify unwanted noise inside vehicles – a feature heavily used in Rolls-Royce production, where cabin silence is a quality standard.
Beyond factory inspections, the hub has more than 100 people building AI solutions for BMW worldwide and manages the group’s internal AI agent marketplace from Pretoria. That marketplace has grown from 9 000 to more than 20 000 users across the BMW Group.
AI agents
BMW said 2026 marks a shift towards an “agentic” AI model, in which AI systems operate as interconnected agents embedded across the organisation.
On potential job losses, BMW said AI will “amplify” employees: hard workers and learners will be made better, while those who uncritically accept whatever AI proposes will have their weaknesses magnified. The company said developers trained to use AI tools properly become faster and produce better code, while those who use them without guidance risk introducing bugs and quality problems.
Read more: BMW SA warns EV policy paralysis is stalling investment
Peter van Binsbergen, CEO of BMW Group South Africa, said the hub has moved far beyond its origins as a support centre. “It has evolved from a support centre into a global innovation powerhouse, and as we lean further into AI and data-driven mobility, our Pretoria team will be at the very heart of BMW Group’s digital future,” he said.
The BMW IT Hub is at capacity and not actively growing, though it takes on around 80 permanent graduate hires a year to replace staff turnover. BMW claimed the hub will contribute more than R4-billion to the South African economy in 2026. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
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