South African companies are in a hurry to start using artificial intelligence. But most are still stuck at the trial stage.

More than half of the just over 100 technology decision makers – CIOs, CTOs, senior engineers and specialists – surveyed in The Cloud Reckoning, a TechCentral survey sponsored by Altron Digital Business, said their organisations plan to move AI work into the cloud within the next 18 months.

That means renting computing power from a large data centre operator rather than buying the expensive, scarce chips AI needs. At about 55%, it topped every other cloud priority, marginally ahead of data and reporting systems.

Only about a quarter, though, are actually running AI in production – doing real work such as handling customer queries or processing transactions the business depends on. The largest group, around 43%, is still piloting: something has been built and works in a test but is not yet trusted with real business. A further 16% have plans but have not started, and the remainder have no AI plans at all.

The hold-up does not appear to be raw computing capacity, at least on the respondents’ own assessment. Only 7% said their infrastructure would need significant work to support AI at scale, and 8% had not looked into it – though most of those surveyed have not yet run AI in production, and may not know what doing so would demand of their systems. Across the survey as a whole, respondents pointed to more mundane obstacles: connecting new systems to ageing software, gaps in security and compliance, and a shortage of cloud skills.

Popia

One of the more interesting findings concerns data protection. Close to half said they had formally reorganised their systems to meet the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia). But about one in five believe they comply without ever having checked.

That is a risky position. The Information Regulator has issued enforcement notices and can impose administrative fines of up to R10-million.

Asked what will change cloud computing in South Africa most by 2028, close to half chose “AI will transform how systems are built and what they cost to run”. A shortage of skilled staff was a distant second at about 16%.

The survey also found that hybrid computing is now a settled choice rather than a stopover: about half deliberately run some systems in rented data centres and keep others on their own machines.

Microsoft Azure dominates, in use or under consideration at roughly 79% of organisations, against 53% for Amazon Web Services. Those figures combine systems already deployed with those merely being evaluated, so the gap on live workloads alone is likely narrower. About one in five are weighing local providers such as Liquid Intelligent Technologies or Xneelo. Connecting cloud services to older software the business still relies on was the most cited source of friction, at about 42%.

About the survey

The survey ran online via TechCentral in May and June 2026, sponsored by Altron Digital Business but with editorial control of the findings resting with TechCentral. Just over 100 people took part after duplicates were removed.

By job title, roughly a third were chief information, technology or security officers, CEOs or MDs, and a further third were heads of IT or technology, directors or vice presidents, with the remainder architects, engineers and other specialists. Half worked at small and medium enterprises and a fifth at organisations with more than 5 000 staff.

Read: SA experts split on whether the singularity has begun

Respondents were self-selected readers and professionals approached directly, so the results reflect that tailored, tech-savvy audience rather than a representative sample of South African business. With a sample of this size, individual percentages carry a wide margin of error, and small differences between figures should not be read as meaningful. — © 2026 NewsCentral Media