Cliff de Wit, chief innovation officer at ADG.
Accelera Digital Group (ADG), the 2025 Google Cloud Partner of the Year for Africa, has highlighted the critical findings of the newly released Google Cloud AI Agent Trends 2026 e-book. The report signals a decisive shift for the South African business landscape, moving from isolated AI experimentation to integrated, agent-driven ecosystems that manage end-to-end workflows.
According to the report, which surveyed over 3 400 global enterprise decision-makers, 2026 is the year that AI agents begin to fundamentally reshape the enterprise. Unlike traditional chatbots that merely answer questions, AI agents are designed to understand goals, formulate plans and take actions across multiple applications to achieve specific business outcomes.
Cliff de Wit, Chief Innovation Officer at ADG, says the findings confirm what the local market is beginning to experience. "We are moving away from instruction-based computing to intent-based computing. For South African organisations, this represents an opportunity to bypass legacy inefficiencies and build what the report describes as a digital assembly line."
The report outlines five key trends that will define the coming year:
1. Agents for every employee
By 2026, employees will increasingly act as orchestrators of specialised AI agents. Rather than performing repetitive tasks, staff will set strategic intent and oversee agents that handle complex processes like invoicing, data retrieval and content drafting. This shift allows the workforce to focus on high-impact brand storytelling and strategy.
2. Agentic workflows in core business processes
The report notes that 88% of agentic AI early adopters are already seeing a positive ROI on at least one use case. In 2026, multi-agent systems will become the default architecture, allowing different agents to collaborate and communicate to automate entire workflows from start to finish.
3. Concierge-style customer experiences
Scripted and reactive customer service is being replaced by proactive agents that remember user preferences and past interactions. These agents can autonomously resolve issues, such as rescheduling deliveries or applying credits, before a customer even files a complaint.
4. Security agents from alerts to action
Security teams are currently overwhelmed by alert fatigue. The report predicts that AI agents will take over up to 90% of tier-one security alerts in 2026. This allows human analysts to shift their focus to threat hunting and long-term defence strategies.
5. Building an AI-ready workforce
The biggest factor for success in 2026 is not just the technology, but the people. Organisations are moving towards continuous learning plans that provide hands-on practice, ensuring that employees have the skills to work alongside these agentic systems.
De Wit says that while the technology is ready, local data readiness remains a challenge.
"The agentic era is here, but an agent is only as good as the context it operates in. South African businesses must ensure their data is grounded and accessible if they want to see the ROI promised in the Google Cloud report."
As a Premier Partner, ADG is working with enterprises across the continent to bridge this readiness gap. The group provides the strategic blueprint needed to transition from conversation-based AI to real-world, agentic use cases that drive tangible value.
