Regenesys Launches Landmark Summit and Dedicated School of AI

South Africa stands at a critical juncture in the global artificial intelligence (AI) race. While the continent’s largest economy has seen rapid adoption of AI tools in sectors like banking, healthcare, and public services, it continues to grapple with a severe skills deficit, high youth unemployment, and a persistent brain drain, particularly in the skill intensive IT sector.

The World Economic Forum’s projections highlight the urgency: AI and automation could potentially displace 92 million jobs globally by 2030 but also has the potential to create 170 million new jobs, provided workers possess the necessary skills. In South Africa, where structural inequalities in education, infrastructure, and digital access already limits participation in the digital economy, failing to build a robust local AI talent pipeline risks deepening economic exclusion and turning the country into a mere consumer of AI products, rather than a creator of AI value.

Inaugural AI Summit and School of AI Launch

This reality has prompted private-sector action. On 9 April 2026, Regenesys Education will host the inaugural Regenesys AI Summit in Sandton, Johannesburg, a high-level thought-leadership event designed to confront these challenges head-on. The summit doubles as the formal launch of the Regenesys School of AI, marking a significant institutional commitment to developing homegrown AI expertise tailored to African contexts.

The summit brings together C-suite executives and experts from major players including Microsoft, AWS, Cisco, Standard Bank, FNB, MTN, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and others. It aims to move beyond high-level discussions toward concrete outputs: skills frameworks, institutional partnerships, and public commitments. Keynotes feature prominent voices such as Muvhango Livhusha (Vice President and Deputy Board Chair, ISACA South Africa), Fred Salimane (Financial Crime Expert, SARS), Dr Nishal Khusial (Managing Partner AI Africa, Regenesys Education), Ayanda Ngcebetsha (Partner Development Director, Microsoft), Smangele Nkosi (General Manager and Country Leader, Cisco South Africa), and Ayanda Swana (CEO and Country Head, Siemens Healthineers South Africa).

Panel sessions will tackle thorny, often-avoided questions: Is South Africa’s regulatory framework prepared for AI at scale? Who is accountable when AI systems cause harm? How can AI literacy be built in a society marked by profound digital inequality? These discussions reflect the broader tension in South Africa’s AI landscape — rapid enterprise adoption contrasted with lagging governance, ethical oversight, and talent supply.

AI Skills Shortage a Significant Challenge

South Africa’s AI ecosystem has grown unevenly. Local organisations deploy AI for credit scoring, medical diagnostics, infrastructure monitoring, and financial crime detection, yet the country produces only a fraction of the skilled practitioners needed to develop, audit, and responsibly govern these systems. This gap leads to real risks: biased lending algorithms, unchecked workforce displacement without reskilling pathways, and cybersecurity vulnerabilities that outpace frameworks. Meanwhile, many of the country’s top technologists emigrate to markets offering better opportunities and rewards.

Dr Marko Saravanja, Chairperson of Regenesys Education, frames the issue starkly: “AI is not creating inequality in Africa. It is accelerating and exposing inequalities that were already there, in education, infrastructure, research capacity and governance.” He emphasises that the divide is no longer just about access to technology, but about access to critical thinking, skills, institutions, and entrepreneurial culture. Regenesys’s response is holistic: the new School of AI extends the institution’s philosophy of developing the “whole person” — professionals who are thinkers, leaders, and ethical citizens.

Full Spectrum AI Training

Unlike short bootcamps or vendor-specific certifications, the Regenesys School of AI is positioned as a long-term academic institution. It will offer structured programmes in AI fundamentals, machine learning engineering, AI governance and ethics, and sector-specific applied AI (financial services, healthcare, public administration). Curricula will be co-developed with industry partners to ensure graduates are immediately employable. Dr Nishal Khusial, Managing Partner AI Africa at Regenesys, stresses localisation: “Africa cannot simply import AI solutions designed for Western infrastructure, Western data and Western regulatory contexts.” Practitioners must understand challenges like load-shedding’s impact on model deployment, fragmented health data, and responsible AI in high-inequality settings.

Policy Framework Completion A Priority

This initiative arrives amid evolving national policy efforts. South Africa’s Draft National AI Policy — developed by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) — entered Cabinet approval in early 2026 and is expected to be gazetted for 60-day public consultation in March 2026. Finalisation is targeted for the 2026/2027 financial year, with full implementation (including regulations and guidelines) following in 2027/2028. The policy builds on earlier frameworks like the 2024 National AI Policy Framework and the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), emphasising human-centred AI, ethical guidelines, skills development, inclusive growth, and collaboration between government, industry, and academia. It seeks a balanced approach: avoiding EU-style over-regulation while steering clear of fully hands-off models.

However, policy progress has been gradual, and skills remain a core pillar. Reports highlight South Africa’s low ranking in global digital readiness indices (often in the bottom third), underscoring the need for expanded education, training, and industry partnerships. Broader African ambitions, such as the continent-wide target of 15% AI literacy by 2026 (endorsed in declarations like the Africa Declaration on Artificial Intelligence), add pressure for South Africa to lead regionally.

The Regenesys AI Summit and School of AI represents a proactive private-sector response to these gaps. By convening stakeholders from tech giants, banks, telcos, government bodies (like SARS), and research institutions, the event aims to produce actionable steps that align talent development with real-world needs. As Saravanja concludes: “For too long, Africa has faced the risk of becoming a consumer of intelligence designed elsewhere, generating data while value is extracted in other markets.” Regenesys is betting that building local capability — in skills, ethics, and innovation — will enable South Africa not just to keep pace with AI, but to shape it and capture more of its value for continental priorities.