Bridging innovation and inequality

This article examines how the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence in South Africa and across Africa is reshaping labour markets and social systems, while risking the deepening of already severe inequalities. It argues that AI‑driven automation threatens jobs in labour‑intensive sectors such as mining, agriculture, and manufacturing, disproportionately affecting vulnerable and marginalised communities in a country with extremely high unemployment and inequality. The article emphasises that AI is not a neutral technology, but one embedded in global capitalist systems that concentrate power among those who control data, infrastructure, and capital, often sidelining African voices and realities; it therefore calls for ethical, inclusive, and culturally grounded approaches to AI governance that reflect African values such as ubuntu, protect human dignity, and ensure that innovation benefits society as a whole rather than widening the digital and social divide.

Abstract based on original source.