Agentic AI is transforming business – and tech executives must now lead with both strategy and soul.
“By 2026, AI isn’t the future anymore; it’s the present,” says Augustine Tumi Mogashoa, Director of IT and Business Continuity Management Specialist at ASQE. “Over 70% of enterprises are already using AI to optimise operations, automate decisions and augment human work.[1] But in the rush to scale innovation, we risk losing something crucial: the people we claim to empower.”
Mogashoa pauses before posing a challenging question: “Are we building smarter systems or a more fractured society?”
She explains that much of the industry focuses on efficiency and profit, yet rarely asks whether AI is being used to truly drive progress rather than just margins. “I don’t believe disruption should come at the cost of human dignity,” she says. “AI shouldn’t just be powerful, it should be purposeful, serving not just shareholders, but society.”
From AI capability to human consequence
Agentic AI can initiate, adapt and even make decisions, responding to new information in real-time, positioning it as more than a tool – it’s a co-worker, even a business partner. But when organisations fixate solely on deploying AI to achieve cost savings and greater speed, the human consequences can be severe.
“Technology is not neutral,” Mogashoa points out. “Its impact is shaped by who designs it, who funds it and who benefits from it. In South Africa, where unemployment is dangerously high and social unrest is rising, tech leaders must stop seeing layoffs as ‘strategy’ and start seeing them as systemic risk.”
She elaborates: “When you let people go, you lose not just skills and institutional knowledge, but also the morale of the remaining team. Creativity drops, innovation slows and the fear of job loss spreads. That affects productivity, retention and ultimately the company’s ability to deliver on AI projects. On a bigger scale, mass layoffs can weaken the economy, hurt communities and even trigger social unrest – which circles back to affect business. In other words, layoffs aren’t just about reducing costs; they threaten the long-term health of the business and the environment it operates in.”
Three ways tech executives can disrupt differently
1. Re-centre human value
Instead of asking: “Which jobs can AI take?”, ask “Which human qualities can AI never replace?” and build roles around those qualities.
2. Design AI for mobility, not just margin
“AI can do more than save costs,” Mogashoa says. “It can create new careers. Treat implementation as an opportunity for upskilling, internal promotions and new business models that lift people up, not out.”
3. Measure impact beyond the enterprise
Today’s tech leadership must account for more than ROI. Track AI decisions’ effects on communities, job access and national cohesion. “Social unrest is a cost too,” she adds. “The real innovation isn’t more automation; it’s more imagination.”
Inclusion is not a soft goal, it’s the smart one
“South Africa is at a crossroads,” Mogashoa says. “We can allow AI to deepen existing divides, or we can use it to rewrite the story of who gets to participate in our economy. In the rush to scale AI, let’s not leave our people behind. Progress is meaningless if it excludes the very communities we aim to uplift.”
The real AI revolution, she stresses, isn’t about replacing people – it’s about redefining how we value them. “If we automate without inclusion, we accelerate collapse. But if we lead with courage, AI becomes a bridge instead of a barrier. Tech leadership today isn’t just about building faster systems; it’s about building fairer futures. As agentic AI grows in capability, our leadership must grow in responsibility. That’s how we ensure AI adoption is not just powerful, but purposeful.”
[1] https://www.forrester.com/report/the-state-of-ai-2025/RES189955
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