May 15, 2027
The robot barista at The Marc’s newest café in Sandton Central silently places two perfectly crafted rooibos lattes on the table, steam rising into the cool Johannesburg autumn air. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the Sandton skyline gleams in the late afternoon sun—a landscape transformed by the tech boom of the past five years, with new AI company headquarters nestled among the financial institutions that have long defined this affluent business district.
Two former colleagues, Maya Naidoo and David Pretorius, greet each other with warm smiles tinged with the subtle awkwardness of reuniting after years on dramatically different trajectories.
Maya, now Chief People Experience Officer at Centauri Health (whose striking new headquarters stand just across Maude Street), looks relaxed and energised despite her packed schedule. David, recently laid off after 12 years at legacy insurance giant ShieldSure, shows the weathered look of someone who’s been through corporate turbulence.
They were once peers, graduating from the same Wits Business School talent development program in 2020, each stepping into Learning & Development leadership roles as the AI revolution was gaining momentum. Today, they represent two starkly different outcomes of that revolution that has reshaped Johannesburg’s business landscape.
The Reunion
Maya: (stirring her latte) “It’s been too long, David. How are things?”
David: (with a forced smile) “Well, you know how it goes in Sandton these days. Transitions are always opportunities, right? That’s what we always told our workshop participants at the Michelangelo Hotel.”
Maya: “I heard about ShieldSure. I’m sorry.”
David: “Third round of layoffs in two years. This time, they eliminated the entire L&D department at the Sandton headquarters. They’re now using off-the-shelf AI training modules managed by their Cape Town office. The Board finally pulled the plug on our Gauteng operation last month. Stock’s down 68% since 2025.”
Maya: (nodding sympathetically) “What happened? When we both started, ShieldSure was considered the bedrock of the JSE.”
David: (sighs) “Death by a thousand cuts. Remember in 2024 when we were all scrambling to figure out the AI thing after those load-shedding prediction algorithms took off? Our executive team took what they called the ‘measured approach.’ We created an AI Centre of Excellence, rolled out mandatory compliance training on responsible AI use, and built an internal certification program.”
Maya: “I remember. We were doing something similar at Centauri initially.”
David: “The problem wasn’t what we did – it was what we didn’t do. We trained people on AI tools but never reimagined how those tools could transform our entire business model. Our leadership kept asking, ‘How can we use AI to make our existing processes more efficient?’ never ‘How might AI help us solve customer problems in entirely new ways?'”
Maya: (nodding) “That shift in questioning made all the difference for us. But it wasn’t easy, especially given the infrastructure challenges we face in South Africa.”
The Divergence
David: “Tell me what happened at Centauri. Last time we talked, you were still Director of Learning Operations, pushing for that human-centred design program that your CEO was sceptical about. I remember you running that workshop at the Innovation Hub.”
Maya: (smiling) “That feels like a lifetime ago. You know what changed everything? We had this catastrophic product launch failure in late 2024. Our big AI-enhanced health monitoring platform – designed specifically for South Africa’s mixed private-public healthcare system – landed with a thud. Customers hated the interface, doctors at Netcare and Life Healthcare wouldn’t recommend it, and our customer support team at the Woodmead call centre was drowning in complaints.”
David: “I remember reading about that in Business Day. Your stock took a hit.”
Maya: “Dropped 24% in a week. There was serious talk about our CEO being forced out by the board. That’s when something unexpected happened. Instead of doubling down or finding scapegoats, our CEO called an all-hands at our old Rivonia office and admitted something profound: ‘We’ve been building technology first and thinking about humans second. From now on, we’re reversing that equation. “
David: “Bold move in the South African corporate landscape. Most executives I know would have blamed load-shedding or exchange rates.”
Maya: “It was survival. She gave me a mandate: transform how we develop products, starting with our people. I still remember her words: ‘Maya, I don’t need more AI training programs. I need our people to become expert problem solvers who use AI as their superpower to address South Africa’s unique healthcare challenges. “
David: (genuinely curious) “So what did you do? Practically speaking, in our South African context.”
Maya: “We completely reimagined the L&D function. First, we embedded human-centred design facilitators in every product team, not as consultants but as core team members responsible for the user experience from day one. We replaced traditional role-based training programs with immersive learning experiences built around real customer challenges, taking our teams to clinics in Alexandra and Soweto to understand healthcare delivery on the ground.”
David: “We tried innovation workshops too at the Maslow Hotel, but they always felt disconnected from daily work.”
Maya: “That was key – we didn’t treat design thinking as a workshop or methodology. We made it our operating system. Every meeting started with a user need. Every decision had to connect back to human impact. We redesigned our physical workspace in Sandton and our digital platforms to reinforce constant experimentation and bridge the digital divide in our market.”
David: (looking thoughtful) “At ShieldSure, our leadership kept asking for ROI projections before trying anything new. ‘Show me the business case in rand terms,’ they’d say.”
Maya: “We faced that too. So we created a portfolio approach – 70% of our learning investments had to show immediate operational impact, but 30% was reserved for exploration and capability building that might not pay off for years. That protected space for long-term thinking was crucial, especially given the volatility of our economy.”
The Human Element
David: “What about the AI piece specifically? We spent millions on an enterprise AI platform from one of those new companies in Waterfall, but adoption was always a struggle. People feared it would replace them or couldn’t see how it fit their workflow.”
Maya: “We took a different approach. Instead of focusing on the AI tools, we obsessed over the human capabilities needed to work alongside intelligent machines. Creativity became our north star. We redesigned performance metrics to reward collaborative problem-solving, not just individual productivity.”
David: (with a hint of defensiveness) “We tried to emphasise creativity, too. We ran innovation jams quarterly at Monte Casino.”
Maya: (gently) “But was creativity treated as a core business function or a special event? At Centauri, we completely redesigned our talent model. We started hiring for curiosity and adaptability over domain expertise. Our interview process now includes collaborative design challenges with AI tools. We’ve even partnered with the University of Johannesburg and Wits to develop new curricula for AI-human collaboration.”
David: “That wouldn’t have worked at ShieldSure. Our HR system was built around job grades and standardised competencies from the financial services sector frameworks. Everything needed to fit the existing structure.”
Maya: “That was our biggest challenge, too. Our traditional HR infrastructure was completely incompatible with the fluid, skills-based organisation we needed to become. So we scrapped it and built something new – a dynamic talent marketplace where people could flow to the most important problems regardless of title or department. This was revolutionary in South Africa’s traditionally hierarchical corporate culture.”
David: (looking surprised) “Your CHRO let you dismantle the entire HR system?”
Maya: “Not at first. However, we started with small experiments that showed how a human-centred approach delivered better results. Eventually, the evidence was undeniable. Now our entire people system is organised around maximising human creativity and collaboration. It’s been especially powerful in our context, where we have such diverse perspectives and experiences to draw from.”
The Outcomes
David: (stirring his latte, looking reflective) “Meanwhile, at ShieldSure, we kept focusing on efficiency. Every AI initiative was justified by how many FTEs it would replace. By late 2025, employees were actively hiding their AI usage, afraid that showing efficiency improvements would put them on the next retrenchment list.”
Maya: “The ‘secret cyborgs’ phenomenon. We saw that starting to happen too, particularly among our older staff members.”
David: “Exactly. Then, Discovery and Sanlam started releasing these incredibly personalised insurance products, using AI to predict individual customer needs in ways we never imagined. Our response was to create a ‘digital transformation task force’ that spent eight months producing a strategy document. By the time we started implementing anything, we were hopelessly behind.”
Maya: “At Centauri, we took a different approach. We created what we called ‘possibility teams’ – cross-functional groups including customers from different economic backgrounds, frontline staff, data scientists, and clinicians. Each team had 30 days to build and test a prototype solving a specific customer challenge. The best ideas got instant funding and support.”
David: (looking wistful) “That sounds incredible. What happened to the ideas that didn’t work out?”
Maya: “We celebrated them! Our CEO instituted the ‘Glorious Failure Award’ for teams whose experiments provided the most valuable learning. It completely transformed our culture around risk-taking, which was revolutionary in South Africa’s traditionally risk-averse business environment.”
David: “Our culture became paralysed by fear. By 2026, our best people left in droves for those new AI startups in Bryanston and Rosebank. The final blow came when MediLife launched its AI-powered preventative care platform tailored to South African healthcare needs. They captured 30% of our market in six months.”
Maya: “I remember when your CEO dismissed them as ‘just another tech company trying to play in healthcare’ at that JSE event.”
David: (nodding ruefully) “He said their valuation was irrational. Now they’re worth five times what’s left of ShieldSure on the JSE.”
The Human Impact
Maya: “The most rewarding part for me has been seeing how people have transformed. Remember Thabo from the analytics team? He was so quiet in our leadership program.”
David: “Absolutely. Brilliant with data but struggled to speak up in meetings. Always sitting in the back row.”
Maya: “He’s now leading our most innovative product team. The combination of design thinking and AI tools gave him a framework to translate his analytical insights into compelling visions that resonated with engineers and customers. Last year, his team developed our breakthrough predictive care platform, helping hospitals across Gauteng reduce readmissions by 47%.”
David: (genuinely impressed) “That’s amazing. I’m happy for him.”
Maya: “The magic wasn’t teaching AI skills – he already had those. It created an environment where his unique combination of technical expertise and empathy could flourish. We’ve seen this pattern repeat across the organisation – people discovering capabilities they never knew they had.”
David: “Our approach was so different. We created standardised AI training paths: basic, intermediate, and advanced. Everyone had completion targets in their performance plans. But it felt mechanical – checking boxes rather than unleashing potential.”
Maya: “Did you ever measure the impact on your customers?”
David: (shaking his head) “Not directly. We tracked NPS, but it kept declining despite all our initiatives. Leadership blamed everything from market conditions to regulatory changes, never our approach to innovation.”
Maya: “Our most powerful metric became ‘problem velocity’ – how quickly we could move from identifying a customer need to delivering a solution. Before our transformation, it took 18 months on average. Now it’s less than 30 days, which has been game-changing in our rapidly evolving market.”
The Perspective
David: (after a thoughtful pause, looking out at the Sandton skyline) “Looking back, I can see where we went wrong. We treated AI as a technology initiative rather than a catalyst for reimagining our business. We focused on training rather than transformation.”
Maya: “If it makes you feel any better, we almost went down the same path. What saved us was that product failure forced us to rethink our approach fundamentally. Sometimes crisis is the best teacher, and goodness knows we’ve had enough of those in South Africa.”
David: “Any advice for someone trying to reenter the job market at 45 in Joburg’s youth-obsessed tech sector?”
Maya: (leaning forward) “Your experience is incredibly valuable, David. ShieldSure’s mistake wasn’t in having people like you – it was in not empowering you to drive the change they needed. The best organisations now understand that technology alone doesn’t create differentiation. It’s the human capabilities that make the difference, especially in our multicultural, multilingual society.”
David: “That’s generous of you to say.”
Maya: “I mean it. Our Chief Technology Officer said last week that our competitive advantage isn’t our AI models – those can be replicated. It’s our human-centred operating system that competitors can’t easily copy. That’s what L&D professionals who understand this new world are building.”
David: (with renewed energy) “I’ve been thinking about consulting. Helping organisations avoid the mistakes ShieldSure made. There’s a growing market for that expertise in Africa.”
Maya: “You should. There are still plenty of companies struggling with this transition. They need people who’ve seen both paths and understand the South African context.”
The Future
The robot barista approaches with a subtle gesture, offering refills. Maya waves it away with a smile.
Maya: “We should wrap up. I’ve got a design sprint with our Nairobi team in an hour.”
David: “Virtual?”
Maya: (smiling) ” I’m flying there tomorrow via Ethiopian Airlines. Even with immersive holographic meetings, we’ve found that nothing replaces human connection for the most creative work. That’s one of our core principles– use technology to automate the routine so humans can focus on the extraordinary. It’s essential when working across cultural contexts in Africa.”
David: (nodding) “That’s the insight we missed. We kept trying to make humans more machine-like in their efficiency, rather than making machines better tools for human creativity and cross-cultural understanding.”
Maya: (standing to leave) “It’s not too late, you know. The organisations that survive will be the ones that figure out how to amplify what makes us uniquely human. And that will require guides who understand both the technology and the human side of the equation, especially in markets as diverse as ours.”
David: (with genuine conviction) “Maybe that’s my next chapter.”
Maya: “I think it could be. The revolution’s just beginning, and South Africa needs more people who’ve seen both sides of it.”
As they part ways outside the café, the golden light of a Highveld sunset bathes the Sandton skyline. David watches Maya confidently stride toward the Gautrain station. He pulls out his tablet and begins jotting notes for a new approach to talent development – one centred not on training people to use AI, but on building organisations where human creativity and artificial intelligence form a powerful alliance uniquely suited to South Africa’s challenges and opportunities.
The robot barista silently clears their cups, an unwitting metaphor for the world they inhabit – one where automation handles the routine to make space for the uniquely human.
About the Author
James van der Westhuizen is the Founder and PeoplePower advocate at People Power LTD. With over 20 years of experience in organisational transformation across Africa, he specialises in workshop facilitation and business simulation, helping organisations develop the human capabilities needed to thrive in AI.
