South Africa, April 1 -- According to Dawood Patel, CEO of Helm, this disconnect between technology and finance leadership is one of the biggest blockers to meaningful AI adoption in South Africa. "We see a consistent pattern where CIOs are excited about what AI could do, while CFOs are understandably cautious about what it will actually deliver," says Patel. "When those two perspectives don't align, AI initiatives stall, not because the technology isn't viable, but because trust hasn't been established."

The challenge is amplified locally by what Patel describes as a "perfect storm" of conditions:

"There's a lot of noise in the market," Patel explains. "CFOs are being sold 'AI' that is often little more than rebranded predictive analyt...