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A recently published BMIT 2025 SA ICT Market Sizing and Overview Report has revealed how Artificial Intelligence (AI) has significantly impacted the South African Information and Communication Technology (ICT) market.
The report highlights the outstanding contribution of IT services to overall growth as some businesses are integrating AI into processes and leveraging it for future growth, while others are coming to grips with how best to respond.
According to Chris Geerdts, BMIT’s Managing Director, their research on the market size, trends and drivers, confirms AI as a pervasive force that many businesses are actively engaging with.
The report found that AI and data analysis are becoming more and more important in the IT services sector. This comes as AI is becoming increasingly integrated into various aspects of the ICT ecosystem.
By Gamuchirai Mapako
Geerdts stated that generative AI stood out as a key growth driver for the global ICT industry, impacting many market components.
Even if demand for cloud services is still rising at the fastest rate, the use of AI is changing the needs for both supplying and using such services.
Cloud computing provides access to innovative technologies like AI, fostering the development and deployment of new applications.
According to BMIT, the IT hardware market has seen steady but slow growth, maintaining a consistent annual rate of 3.8% over the past two years.
However, the report highlights that the server market is likely to experience higher demand, driven by the growing need for AI, big data, and high-performance computing (HPC) applications.
This growth continues to be driven, as it has for many years, by increasing demand for cloud services.
“High-end data centre infrastructure investments cater to high-density AI/HPC needs, requiring powerful compute resources,” BMIT said.
“AI-driven automation is also increasingly used for network management and optimisation. AI integration into devices is anticipated to become commonplace.”
The software market is experiencing growing demand for platforms that support AI, machine learning, and advanced business intelligence tools, fuelled by the rise of AI and data analytics. Meanwhile, AIOps solutions are helping businesses monitor, manage, and optimize complex IT systems more efficiently.
AI is also set to transform the IT services industry, especially in automation and proactive IT support. According to Geerdts, IT service providers can guide businesses in adopting AI responsibly by addressing ethical concerns, data privacy, and proper implementation.
The telecom sector is also feeling AI’s impact, as its increasing use requires faster, more reliable connections with low latency, particularly for large-scale data transfers.
Although all the telecommunications and IT subsectors showed positive growth, and the overall ICT market performed impressively with 7.7% year-on-year growth, IT services was the best performer.
As shown in BMIT’s estimates, both the telecom and IT sectors saw strong growth in 2024, with AI contributing to expansion across all related sub-sectors.
Can Zimbabwe follow in its neighbour’s footsteps and fully utilising AI or are we still behind?
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