Werner Joubert, Commercial SYS Director (South Africa & SADC) at ASUS, unpacks how AI is reshaping business functions, emphasising the importance of accessible AI tools and high-performance hardware to achieve optimal productivity and future growth.

AI has brought about a seismic change for enterprises around the world. The technology’s adoption has increased dramatically in the past year, with organisations using it in more business functions now than previously–everything from sales and marketing to product and service development. The same can be said in South Africa where, as worldwide, AI usage has increased. In a recent Google/Ipsos poll, over half of surveyed South Africans reported that they’ve used GenAI (generative AI) in the last year, up from 45% in 2023, with 90% feeling that the technology will have a positive impact on their ability to understand complex topics, and 79% thinking it will benefit the way they learn.

Previously available to only a handful of corporations with the financial means, resources and expertise to leverage it, AI has been democratised as the cost and barriers to entry have dissolved, allowing more and more businesses to reap its potential. AI-enabled programmes and applications can support businesses in several ways:

• Operational efficiency: Through process optimisation and automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, AI can streamline certain business functions and free up time, resources, and employees to focus on more important, creative, or lucrative work. AI systems can also reduce the likelihood of human error by removing the human element from the process, which is useful in fields such as financial accounting and data management.
• Market research: With the ability to gather and analyse large amounts of data and pull actionable insights from them, businesses can make better and more informed decisions about their products, operations, and growth strategies. Furthermore, that data can be used to predict market and industry trends, enabling businesses to be more agile and stay ahead of their competitors.
• The customer/business relationship: Every business should strive to know and treat its customers better. Using AI, they can offer personalised experiences by analysing customer behaviour and preferences. This can also be a proactive effort, as by understanding those preferences, businesses can improve their product development strategies, creating and offering the solutions that people need and want the most.

What distinguishes AI as a powerful business tool is that businesses, especially small ones, do not need to invest heavily in training their own models or building their own applications to extract value from it. Today, an entire ecosystem of platforms and services exist that let organisations become more intelligent, like social media platforms that let marketers schedule and analyse posts, accounting software for automated financial tracking and invoicing, and chatbots that can be configured for customer interaction.

We need hardware that’s up to the task

Of course, the AI revolution would not be possible without businesses having access to infrastructure and technology to meet new technical and processing needs. Though many entrepreneurs and small enterprises can get by with a digital device equipped with an internet connection, using cloud-based AI solutions to automate and enhance business functions, others require devices that can take their AI capabilities to the next level.

AI PCs, laptops and desktop computers that feature hardware specially designed to accelerate AI workloads deliver on this without compromising other elements of the PC experience, including performance, cooling, and battery life. AI PCs feature specialised hardware such as a CPU (central processing unit) with both an NPU (neural processing unit) and an integrated GPU (graphics processing unit) that enables users to run AI-powered features and complete tasks quickly and efficiently.

More than that, AI PCs run processes underneath the apps and assistants users access that streamline operations and optimise hardware usage. They are a holistic solution rather than just an ordinary laptop or desktop with a high-powered CPU or GPU, monitoring and optimising all components such as the battery, OS (operating system), and motherboard. The result is a product that is much better equipped and ready to handle the business workloads and processes of the future. Users and organisations can achiever productivity gains thanks to enhanced speed and performance, as well as increase their return on investment with solutions geared towards handling AI projects.

AI does not begin and end with automating an email response. To fully capitalise on the technology, South African enterprises must invest in the solutions that pave the way for future development and technological growth. That starts with the proper hardware for the right purpose.