Technologist and tech change expert, Johnson Idesoh, spoke with Businesstech Africa from Davos in Switzerland, where he is attending the World Economic Forum.
Idesoh, an IT engineer by background, is currently the CIO at ABSA group with a working history over three decades that includes; Group CIO at Old Mutual, also at a UK company called Aviva, and worked at pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
We asked Johnson about his perspective on the current technological shifts and particularly about the drive towards AI adoption and if there is more hype that effect currently and what he perceives to be the biggest area of impact on business particularly in Africa.
Rapid Advance in AI Outstripping Previous Tech Developments
“First of all, we are going through the hype cycle on AI, It has happened with every generation of technology that I’ve lived through in my 35 years, comments Idesoh”.
“That doesn’t mean we discount it, because very often what happens all the time is hype goes up, disappointment, and then you start to see the long-term adoption of the technology. And I think that’s where AI is. What I think is different about AI is the speed at which we’ve seen adoption”, he states.
“If we roll back to November 2022, most people hadn’t heard of generative AI, large language models, et cetera”. “So while most execs are still saying we’re still to see the value of generative AI”.
“November 2022 to January 2025 is really not a long time, and what generative AI has done, helped by ChartGPT, OpenAI, it’s been a similar pattern to the internet, similar pattern to mobile, in that it exploded into consumer space and then was driven almost into the enterprise. So I think that’s what we’re seeing”.
Johnson comments that there is much hype and that walking along the promenade in Davos, it’s AI after AI after AI after AI after AI, in terms of tech being promoted.
Agentic AI – The new AI Development Horizon
I mention to Johnson, that the expectation of AI is currently a little bit disconnected from the reality at the moment. And that like many new technology developments, it takes a while for adoption to be understood and implemented correctly to produce results, and asked him for his take on this, particularly regarding agentic AI development.
He states that the reason he believes that Agentic AI is very relevant to a bank like ABSA, is that it actually makes generative AI really useful. “And I don’t mean to be dismissive of generative AI” he contextualises.
“It’s fun to use (generative AI), It’s fun to interact with questions, but I think what agentic AI is beginning to do for us is enable us…, to run entire systems” he comments.
Agentic AI Creating Better Client Understanding and Analysis
Johnson highlights the processes that ABSA operates for customers, where they have applied a lot of AI, machine learning already. Mainly in areas such as credit scoring, fraud detection, and others.
However, when it comes to making decisions during those processes, and trying to understand the sentiment of customer from an email and other nuances, that up until now have not been done by technology, agentic AI is starting to have real impact in analysis and providing greater understanding of customers and their needs.
“So what makes me excited is, you’ve got at the core now technology that has the ability to probabilistically infer, which is different from these old deterministic – if this, then, do this process of old”, says Johnson.
“So all of a sudden, I have technology that can go through a transcript or go through an email in real time, actually can listen to the transcript in real time and infer, and then it can go into the more traditional part of technology where you’ve got rules, you do this if it’s that, and then, of course, you’ve got RPA, et cetera, so this is why I say, for me, agentic AI makes gen AI valuable, because I can begin to see how you can use it for end-to-end processes in the service of customers”, he says.
Banks- Technology Companies with Banking Licences
“So I will say it’s really important that at the end of the day, …. about how you look at AI, it’s a tool. “It’s not the silver bullet, It’s not the panacea, the mere fact I use probabilistic in my definition of it means it could be wrong.
Johnson stresses that having human overview remains absolutely critical. “So for us at ABSA, going into 2025, we’ve done the experimentation on gen AI that everyone’s done, and we’ve had the excitement as everyone has had”. “We’ve had the first few use cases go in, but we’re saying; 2025 is about really beginning to understand agentic AI, AI agents, and obviously getting practical experience”. “The old philosophy of you want to have a big vision, but you want to start small and you want to learn fast applies”. “For someone like me, I would say a bank is like a technology company with a banking licence because you need to be very adept at using technology, agile and responsive”, he contends.
What About AI in Africa?
I pose the question of AI development in Africa, and if there is the possibility for rapid developments on the continent,
In response Johnson points out that the cost of generative AI is coming down rapidly, and his strong belief is that It Africa the opportunity to build really modern skills on modern technology that will allow us to deliver services more economically to our customers.
“And we live on a continent where financial inclusion is really, really important”. “To be able to offer financial services at affordable costs, which in our continent is clearly lower than where I’m sitting in Europe” he says.
Johnson contends that; “These technologies if properly applied, building the right skills in our continent can really give us the opportunity”.
“I was talking to some of the CEOs of many of the tech companies yesterday and today, I said that the thing you’ve got to remember about the African continent is we are innovative and we can move faster, and that is different”. “And I maintain this because I’ve walked in Europe and North America from the markets in the global north”, Johnson concludes.
Read More About AI Development s In Africa: READ HERE
