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Artificial IntelligenceHow can AI shape a positive future for work?

January 4, 2024

By Mamsi Nkosi
Each industrial revolution has caused disruption, but it doesn’t necessarily mean a net loss of jobs. While automation and artificial intelligence (AI) can eliminate jobs and industries, they also create new ones. AI has already improved our lives, especially in the service industry, by increasing efficiency and giving us more free time for tasks like booking flights or ordering food. However, these improvements are somewhat superficial.
AI’s impact goes deeper, with potential benefits in medicine, education, and solving complex scientific problems. For instance, Japan uses “carebots” to address the demand for elderly care. On the flip side, AI’s displacement of repetitive work can create opportunities for more creative and high-value roles.
This transformation highlights the socio-economic impact of AI, leading to shifts in wealth distribution that require policymakers to adapt to an increasingly automated society, ensuring that power and wealth aren’t concentrated in ever fewer hands as automation takes hold and inevitably displaces workers, especially those on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder.

Crucial skills for an AI-driven world
AI literacy means understanding AI’s role in daily life, industries, and communities, including its definition, operation, strengths, and limitations. You don’t need to be a programmer to appreciate AI’s impact, as it’s involved in everyday tasks like online privacy management, restaurant reservations, and job searches. While some may seek a deeper understanding of data science and algorithms, basic AI literacy is vital for everyone in today’s AI-driven world, and the even more AI-powered one that’s coming.
There are four core pillars for AI literacy:
Concepts: AI literacy encompasses understanding fundamental AI concepts, such as how AI learns from data and the connection between personal information and AI interactions. This knowledge helps individuals comprehend AI capabilities and limitations.
Context: Recognising the importance of context in AI is crucial. The impact, strengths, and limitations of AI can vary significantly depending on the situation. For instance, AI recommendations in entertainment might result in minor inconveniences, but in fields like healthcare or finance, AI errors can have severe consequences. Industry leaders must prioritize best practices to manage risks and enhance ROI in different contexts.

Prof. Mark Nasila, Chief Data and Analytics Officer in FNB Chief Risk Office

Capability: As AI becomes more prevalent, individuals need to take action, which can vary widely. This may include teaching children about privacy when interacting with digital assistants, doctors understanding AI tools for medical practice, or programmers integrating AI into applications. AI literacy goes beyond understanding; it involves the ability to apply AI concepts effectively in specific contexts.
Creativity: AI technologies continue to evolve and find new applications, from generating music to writing books. Expanding AI literacy to diverse backgrounds and professions fosters creativity and the ability to envision innovative ways to utilize and benefit from AI technology.
Crucial skills for Africa’s AI-driven future
Africa faces unique challenges, and as a result, it requires a unique approach to AI if it’s to harness everything it has to offer and modernise its industries accordingly. Success with AI in Africa starts with these four elements:
Leadership and Change Management: Effective leadership plays a pivotal role in the success of AI and automation in organizations. Leaders need to educate their workforce about the benefits of automation, counter the perception of job loss, and incentivise employees to support the transition. Communication, incentives, and providing necessary resources are key components of successful change management.

Adaptation and Innovation: Individuals must be willing to adapt and update their skillsets to embrace automation. This adaptation is particularly crucial in IT, where IT managers should shift their focus from managing manual processes to overseeing automated ones. Embracing change can lead to more diverse and highly skilled job roles and transform IT from a cost center to a profit center.
Managing AI and Automation: Managing AI and automated systems requires a different approach than managing human employees. Employees must learn to work alongside machines, leveraging the strengths of both. Effective communication, setting clear objectives, and documenting maintenance tasks are essential for optimizing the performance of automated systems and preventing recurring issues.
Intelligence Management: The introduction of AI necessitates the role of IT data intelligence officers who can interpret data generated by automated processes and turn it into valuable insights.
This role emphasizes the importance of spotting trends and opportunities in data and demands skills in data science and mathematical logic applied to philosophy, bridging the gap between human wisdom and machine understanding.
It’s also essential to instill AI literacy in learners and help them understand and prepare for the jobs AI will create, rather than fearing it limiting their prospects. The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t solely destructive; it will result in the creation of new roles and the transformation of existing ones, presenting opportunities for career switches. Reports suggest that roughly 30% of jobs are currently at risk, with some individuals already experiencing job loss.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, AI is expected to replace 85 million jobs by 2025 but simultaneously create 97 million new jobs. The key challenge now is not whether AI will change the workplace but how companies can effectively integrate it to enhance human productivity rather than replace it. Notably, machine learning and AI jobs face less competition due to a shortage of skilled talent, making them promising career options in a competitive job market.
New jobs are already coming
Various roles are emerging in the field of AI, including AI trainers and professionals supporting data science, with expertise in modeling, computational intelligence, machine learning, mathematics, psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience. AI shouldn’t just be viewed through the lens of automation, it will also change the nature of work, leading to safer and more humane jobs.
PwC predicts that the healthcare industry stands to gain the most from AI, potentially creating nearly 1 million job opportunities, particularly in AI-assisted healthcare technician roles. AI is also making strides in automated transportation, with companies like Uber and Google investing heavily in AI-powered self-driving vehicles, leading to increased demand for AI and machine learning engineers in this sector.

Furthermore, as AI becomes prevalent across industries, there will be a surge in the demand for an AI maintenance workforce, necessitating a significant number of developers and engineers to upkeep AI systems. AI’s implementation will facilitate business growth, enhancing performance, employee retention, and customer acquisition, resulting in expanded job opportunities.
While concerns understandably persist about AI replacing jobs or making others obsolete, it’s essential to recognise that certain aspects of jobs may be automated, but human ingenuity, empathy, and creativity remain irreplaceable in many roles, and will likely become even more important as AI becomes more prevalent.
“This mixed view of Al is not surprising because the technology does more than automate tasks; it changes the nature of the work we do,” says Rachel Russell. Change is constant across industries and societies, by some estimates, 65% of the children in schools today will end up in jobs that don’t exist today.
Another emerging job sector is that of “prompt engineers”, who are able to get the best out of AI and LLM systems, and AI auditors, who check outputs for accuracy and usefulness and guard against biases or other undesirable outcomes.
AI creates jobs with more value
While AI undoubtedly replaces some jobs, it also creates new, well-paying positions in their stead. For instance, in U.S. automotive factories, assembly line workers are being substituted by advanced AI-driven robotics. However, these workers are not losing their jobs; they are transitioning to new roles as robotics technicians.
Companies are using the enhanced productivity to invest in workforce training, resulting in safer and higher-paying positions for these employees. Moreover, many white-collar workers are moving into higher-paying roles as trainers, utilizing their expertise to train AI applications like chatbots in industry best practices.
A company called Zendrive, meanwhile, employs AI to enhance drivers’ performance and road safety, drawing on over 100 billion miles of driver data. Analyzing driver behavior using data from their smartphones, provides specific recommendations to reduce the likelihood of accidents, leading to safer roads and reduced insurance premiums.

“The future belongs to those ready to embrace the Al wave,” frontend developer and educator Vivek Agarwal says. “Remember, Al may not take away your job, but it could be something that can help you do it more effectively.”

Prof. Mark Nasila, Chief Data and Analytics Officer in FNB Chief Risk Office

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

FNB Dubbed Most Valuable Financial Services Brand

January 3, 2023

One of South Africa’s leading financial services companies, FNB has been recognised as the most valuable financial services brand for the third year in a row in Kantar BrandZ’s Top 30 Most Valuable South African Brands 2022.

FNB has been recognised as the most valuable financial services brand for the third year in a row in Kantar BrandZ’s Top 30 Most Valuable South African Brands 2022. In comparison to the previous year, FNB’s brand value increased by 30% to US$3.5-billion, and it earned a Special Award for “Exposure”, a brand indicator that recognises brands that develop “excellent advertising with memorable icons and messages”.

“Our brand is something that we carefully nurture, because it reflects our devotion and commitment to serve customers and society at large,” says FNB CEO Jacques Celliers. “It’s a pledge that we will be there, through thick and thin, to provide them with the help they require, not just to get them through tough economic times, but more crucially, to help them realise the full potential of their money to create the lives and futures they seek and deserve.

“Since its formation in 1838, our organisation has been founded on this commitment. And while our name, logo and corporate identity have steadily evolved over the years to reflect the changing environment in which we operate, our commitment to the promise of ‘help’ remains as strong as ever. In fact, it’s stronger than ever,” Celliers explains.

The latest recognition as the leading financial services brand also reinforces FNB’s ongoing efforts to build a strong, trustworthy and highly regarded brand. In the past year alone, FNB expanded its collection of accomplishments by winning the Best Use of Technology category for its eBucks Rewards at the 2022 International Loyalty Awards. FNB also retained the Global Finance Award for Best SME Bank in SA, and FNB Connect was crowned Digital Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) of the Year at the global MVNO Awards.Egyptian Banking Institute launches Fintech training program

“We are honoured to earn recognition for the stature of our brand among customers and the public. The accolades validate the effectiveness of our efforts to help customers through our reliable digital platform and interfaces. As we accelerate our journey, we also recognise the significance of brand agility, relevance and evolution in our drive to continue addressing the needs of our customers and assisting them with their aspirations and dreams,” concludes Celliers.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

FNB Expects Rebounding of Popular Spend Categories on Black Friday

November 27, 2022

This year’s Black Friday brings about greater anticipation and excitement from consumers and retailers as spend volumes are expected to increase.

According to Chris Labuschagne, CEO of FNB Card, Black Friday represents a time for consumers to buy items at great deals and each year, there’s a trend of spend categories that are popular to consumers. “We expect to see a return to popular categories like travel and entertainment this Black Friday as customers look to spend time with their families without any restrictions. In previous years, we saw spending on digital and technology, groceries and home improvement products lead in popularity due to the changing climate imposed by the pandemic.”

Overall spend from FNB card users in 2021 amounted to R2.5bn, a 15% increase from the previous year and the bank expects a further increase this year with transactions swayed towards digital payments as safer and more convenient ways of making purchases. “For those consumers that will opt to go into brick-and-mortar stores for Black Friday shopping, we expect a significant increase in the use of contactless devices and card payments. Our customers also enjoy a range of convenient digital payment alternatives housed under the FNB Pay umbrella on the FNB App which can be used at any contactless enabled POS device,” adds Labuschagne.

Nollie Maoto, FNB Merchant Services, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, says “E-commerce has also continued its success story into 2022, with every year seeing growth accelerated. Leading up to the week of Black Friday sees e-commerce already at nearly 90% of 2021 values and volumes, with the travel and accommodation sectors already exceeding 2021’s value by 10%. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have produced a noticeable spike even over the last two years, so we’re expecting with-commerce values and volumes to be approximately 40% higher as we head into the Black Friday week.”

Black Friday can be worthwhile for people who plan their purchases ahead of time and some of the discounts can be meaningful in helping customers save on items of high value.

“It is important for consumers to remember that the festive season is very long and as such, it is crucial to manage budgets by avoiding excessive spending. We encourage our customers to consider using their eBucks when shopping to minimise out of pocket expenses. Our customers can also access our Nav>> Smart Budgeting functionality on the FNB App to manage, set up and track their budgets.”

FNB further encourages its customers to use its Virtual Cards for safer online payments and to approve online purchases through the FNB App. The Card Verification Value (CVV) security number on FNB Virtual Cards changes every hour, providing an extra layer of protection for customers. FNB also covers online purchases made using FNB and RMB Private Bank Virtual Cards with complimentary Purchase Protect insurance. Customer purchases are covered for 30 days post-purchase, up to R15 000, and in case of an accident, the insurance will cover repairs or the item’s purchase price.

“We continue to strongly encourage our customers to remain vigilant when shopping online or at a physical point of sale to avoid falling victim to fraudsters over this period,” concludes Labuschagne.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

FNB Delivers Strong Results With Good Credit and Deposit Performance

September 19, 2022

By Jacques Celliers

FNB delivered a strong set of financial results for the financial year ending 30 June 2022, as 10.96 million customers continued to place their trust in our ability to help them with their financial, business and lifestyle needs. Our performance was driven by more customers, increased transactional volumes, strong deposit growth, lower impairments, and increased disbursements to our retail and commercial customers.

Some of the key financial highlights are:

Active customers increased by 5% from 10.48 million to 10.96 million;

Profit before tax increased by 23% from R23.2-billion to R28.4-billion;

Deposits increased by 13% from R666.8-billion to R755.5-billion;

Advances increased by 7% from R459.9-billion to R490.8-billion;

Overall transaction volumes increased by 14% from 2.8 billion to 3.2 billion;

Digitally active customers increased from 6.09 million to 6.48 million; and

Digital logins totalled 1.6 billion.

We want to thank our customers for embracing our strategy and allowing us to help them with their money management and financial wellbeing. As the largest retail household deposit franchise, we are encouraged by our customers’ trust in our ability to meet their expectations. This is also evidenced by the robust growth of our transactional, lending and deposit activity, as well as the increasing demand for our insurance and investment solutions. Pleasingly, we have the necessary resources, including lending capacity, to support our customers’ growth and financial needs.

We remain committed to investing in our digital platform to facilitate our customers’ migration to safer and more efficient channels. Our platform evolution and strategy to increase customer adoption of digital interfaces is yielding results as we continue to experience significant volume and activity growth. Our efforts to protect our customers from fraud continue to be an integral part of our platform innovations, and we are pleased to report positive outcomes in this regard. Our scalable platform offers customers the opportunity to manage their financial needs, securely, 24/7 and ensures customers can engage with us on their preferred device interface, either unassisted on their own devices or assisted by us in our branches, call centres, service suites or secure chat.

We have the necessary resources, including lending capacity, to support our customers’ growth and financial needs

Our Retail segment made significant progress in its strategy to offer inclusive and personalised financial services to customers and their families. We strive to assist customers in managing their money better. Our efforts are supported by unassisted money management tools like nav» Money on the FNB App, which is now used by over 2.9 million customers. To assist Retail customers with their credit needs, in the past year we disbursed a total of R52-billion in home loans. We also disbursed R23-billion in personal loans to customers to appropriately facilitate their day-to-day cashflow needs.

In addition to our popular eWallet solution, we also offer Easy Zero and Easy Pay As You Use accounts. Easy Zero is an entry-level transactional bank account with no monthly account fee and it can be opened through cellphone banking with only the individual’s name, surname, and ID number. Easy Pay-As-You-Use has a low monthly account fee of R4.95 that has remained unchanged. These low-cost accounts play an important role in broadening financial inclusion for customers, including those with irregular income.

Commercial segment

Our Commercial segment also delivered strong results, with just under 300 000 new business accounts and strong deposit growth off the back of attractive product pricing and good innovation. We also offer our commercial customers money management support which helped them to better manage their cashflows. Commercial advances have also increased year-on-year, with total disbursements up 35%, as we continue to support and offer innovative solutions to our business customers’ lending needs. In addition, our SME customers benefited from reduced and/or zero-rated fees to assist them in starting, running and growing their businesses.

In Public Sector Banking, we continued to assist clients such as government departments, schools and universities in digitising their services. We increased digital penetration among our public sector clients from less than 50% to more than 85% to date.

Pleasingly, our Broader Africa activities also delivered strong value to our customers with good deposit and transactional activity growth. Disciplined credit and cost management also contributed to their profit growth. The portfolio’s overall performance was largely attributable to resilient results in countries such as Botswana, Namibia, Eswatini and Zambia, and a continued rebound in Mozambique. First National Bank Ghana continued to mature its operations in line with our strategy. Our Broader Africa countries are levering both traditional and alternative distribution channels to deliver more efficient and cost-effective financial solutions to customers.

Social impact

Our efforts to support broader society include financial inclusion and wellness, community support for social and economic transformation, and environmental sustainability. We were actively involved in efforts to provide relief to flood-affected communities such as KwaZulu-Natal, as well as in providing work experience to youth through an internal FirstJob programme with 468 FirstJobbers employed, up 53% this year and resulting in a total of 2 848 youth gaining invaluable work experience to date. Furthermore, we continue to use our platform for social good by allowing customers and employees to donate to charities and adopt early childhood centres via the FNB App’s nav>> Care functionality.

Some of FNB’s “Help” to society included:

R181-million donated to FirstRand’s Corporate Foundations;

R261-million invested since 2018 to help 2 848 youth with work experience through the FirstJob programme;

Over R37-million donated to communities affected by disasters;

8-million to repair infrastructure and provide sanitation in 45 vandalised KZN schools;

R10 million sponsorship for the Thrive by Five Index, the largest survey of early learning outcomes in South Africa;

Over R3.4-million raised through nav» Care donations by employees and customers; and

Some 1 165 early childhood centres and Old Age Homes adopted digitally by employees and customers.

We recognise that the societal impact of our business efforts is critical to establishing trust. As a result, we strive to make a positive impact by collaborating with communities across our markets. We also recognise that our business performance would not have been possible without our customers and hardworking employees, and we extend our gratitude to all as we work to build an even stronger business over the next 184 years.

Jacques Celliers, is CEO of FNB

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

FNB Rewards Employees With R-10 Million Innovation Awards

August 1, 2022

One of South Africa’s leading financial powerhouse, FNB has continued to recognise and reward its employees for pioneering innovations. The longstanding, 20-year-old Innovators Programme showcases and celebrates platform innovations by employees, with recent innovators’ cycles having seen employees being awarded with close to R10 million in prize money for their innovative submissions.

“Our internal Innovators Programme acts as a platform to help steer, drive and celebrate relevant innovation across our organisations,” says FNB CEO Jacques Celliers. “Our ability to innovate in-house continues to serve as an important advantage in our efforts to deliver timely and contextual solutions to our retail and commercial customers. Considering the economic and social challenges facing individuals and businesses, we are motivated to innovate and scale our contextual solutions even further as innovation remains a vital enabler for our and our customers’ growth.”

Our internal Innovators Programme acts as a platform to help steer, drive and celebrate relevant innovation

FNB Innovators executive Nenzeni Duma says: “We congratulate this year’s top prize-winning team, all other winners and finalists. Through the programme, we have developed exciting offerings, adapted to our new hybrid ways of working, for our employees to be inspired, ideate collaboratively, and implement and celebrate innovations. We are excited to see how these impactful platform solutions will continue to solve local and global challenges that our customers and the society at large are grappling with.”

For this cycle, the top prize winner was Activity Based Payments, which gives customers control of when and how to make payments on dates they set while managing their money.

Other game-changing innovations included “Virtual Card”, which has reimagined physical card on platform and allows FNB customers to safely pay for purchases online with its dynamic CVV that changes every hour.

Employees who created a solution called “Democratising Investments — Social Wealth Creation” were recognised for the creation of FNB’s ETN Enables Shares Zero, which allows clients to trade FNB ETNs for free without any monthly fees on platform.

A “Mass Affluent Regional Model” solution, meanwhile, delivers integrated financial services to all mass affluent customers across all platforms, through contextual money management conversations and also recognised.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry