Data management and resilience specialist Veeam Software has confirmed its sponsorship of and participation in the ITWeb AI Summit 2026 on 22 April at The Forum, in Bryanston, and will highlight AI’s promise for Africa: to drive data, trust and ethical innovation at scale.
Tahir Latif, chief privacy and AI governance officer for Securiti AI at Veeam, and Mark Govender, senior systems engineer at Veeam, are scheduled to present at the event.
ITWeb AI Summit 2026
Want to see how AI is being applied in real businesses? Join industry experts and decision-makers at the ITWeb AI Summit 2026 on 22 April in Johannesburg, where leaders will unpack practical AI strategies, real-world case studies and the technologies shaping tomorrow’s intelligent enterprises.
Latif will preside over a 30-minute fireside chat about the opportunities AI presents for Africa, and what is required to thrive – from robust data governance and sovereignty to ethical frameworks tailored to the region.
Veeam will explain why knowing data and its flows is essential for compliance, trust and innovation. The company will provide advice on how to overcome challenges like data risk and cross-border privacy.
The session will be peppered with questions like ‘how can organisations move from policies on paper to real, operational controls and evidence of compliance?’ and ‘what does an actionable 120-day plan for AI confidence look like, and what quick wins can organisations aim for?’
The fireside chat will include an audience-driven Q&A on the top risks and solutions for AI confidence.
Govender will centre his presentation on the delivery of trusted AI, and how companies should handle the challenge to harness the power of AI while maintaining control, trust and compliance.
He will guide delegates through practical steps for ensuring all data is governed ethically, protected from threats and ready for innovation – so AI initiatives can be trusted, compliant and ready to scale.
This session will cover real-world scenarios and interactive questions to help delegates assess their current state and chart a path towards resilient, secure and ethical AI.
Important sub-themes
Veeam will provide insight into several important sub-themes, including mastering data governance and security for AI confidence, why AI confidence breaks, a practical operating model for AI trust, the converging data crisis as well as AI security and governance controls.
These sub-themes and relevant issues will be discussed in the context of how businesses should approach AI, integrate the technology and scale safely – given the propensity for AI pilot projects to fail.
According to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study featured in Fortune Magazine, 95% of these projects fail mainly due to a lack of strategy and planning.
“Organisations in general are inclined to believe AI technology is the root cause of pilot project failure. In fact, often, it is because of issues such as unknown data location and sensitivity, shadow AI and no continuous monitoring, among others,” says Latif.
Veeam executives will introduce and explain its practical operating model for AI trust.
Delegates will be empowered with what Veeam terms ‘a four-month AI confidence sprint’ – a ‘how to’ action plan that the company is confident will work for operators who commit to understanding and following the processes.
Knowing your environment
Veeam places a premium on the need for leaders of companies to fully understand their environments – especially their data.
Since data is the fuel that powers AI, Veeam will use the AI Summit platform to explain how the company delivers trusted AI by ensuring a company’s data is understood, secured, resilient and unleashed.
Govender believes the combination of Veeam’s data resilience capabilities (backup, recovery, portability, security and intelligence) with Securiti AI’s data command graph and agentic AI capabilities has established a powerful source of safe AI and data-driven services.
“Have organisations unlocked AI’s full potential? Not even close! We are just getting started and the companies that get their foundations right, especially their data strategy, will lead the next decade," says Govender. "In South Africa, AI has the power to unlock productivity, modernise public services and accelerate industries, but the enterprise of tomorrow won’t be built on ambition alone… it needs secure infrastructure, ethical governance, skilled people and real collaboration across sectors.”
Latif adds: “Events such as these are great for networking. You meet practitioners, you meet peers – but, very importantly, you understand what is actually happening at the ground level. What are your colleagues doing? What challenges are they are facing? And, crucially, what solutions are they using with people, processes and technologies to overcome those challenges? While organisations are looking at deploying AI, the full capability of AI is yet to be realised. AI is constantly developing… the AI of 2025 is not the AI of today; it’s a dynamic landscape.”
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