AI
AI promises speed, productivity and sharper decision-making, but it is not weightless. Behind every prompt sit data centres, electricity demand, integration costs, governance, and people who still have to check the machine’ s work.
By Ebrahim Moolla
Artificial intelligence arrives lightly. A prompt, a chatbot, a summary, an automated workflow. It sits inside the clean glow of the screen and gives the impression of effort removed.
But AI has a body, and it has an appetite.
Behind the prompt box sit data centres, cooling systems, electricity demand, cloud costs, integration, training, governance, and human oversight. The cloud, as the old joke goes, is just someone else’ s computer. Increasingly, it is also someone else’ s power bill.
For South African businesses, AI now belongs in the same conversation as infrastructure, cost, risk, and discipline. The technology can improve productivity and speed up work. It also places new demands on systems, people, and planning.
76 sabusinessintegrator. co. za