Why organisational capability is the new competitive advantage in the age of AI
The business environment of 2026 looks nothing like it did a decade ago, as market competition and the steady integration of generative artificial intelligence are compelling leaders to ask new, harder questions about business stability and the fundamentals that enable growth.
In the era of artificial intelligence, the ability of an organisation to adapt and grow stands as the key to remaining competitive. As jobs and workflows evolve, businesses must strike a balance between people, culture, and strategy to ensure sustainable growth. The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2030, 39% of workers' core skills will change, with AI and information processing driving both the fastest-growing and fastest-declining roles.
Navigating this shifting landscape requires businesses to understand that every strategy is fundamentally a people strategy. Even in an AI-enabled world, people are ultimately responsible for executing strategy. Adoption of AI is mainly aimed at unlocking growth rather than replacing jobs. In South Africa, 3% of job postings now require AI skills, according to PwC's 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer. This indicates that AI is becoming an integral part of hiring demand, not a cyclical trend.
However, there is a growing divide between AI adoption and development. While AI user roles have increased by 4.2% since the introduction of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, developer roles have declined by 8.3%. This suggests that businesses are focusing on applying AI to existing workflows to enhance performance and generate value, rather than investing heavily in building new AI capabilities.
Absa has witnessed the benefits of integrating enterprise agentic AI solutions, resulting in a 75-90% reduction in administrative time for customer relationship managers and a 40% reduction in customer service query handling time with human intervention. This has led to a sustained decrease in service demand and a monthly release of 108 hours of operational time in HR shared services.
As organisations increasingly rely on AI for productivity and revenue generation, a crucial question arises: are businesses technically ready to deploy AI, or institutionally ready to govern it? This question primarily revolves around human capital. The HR department plays a vital role in identifying the necessary capabilities, restructuring roles and workflows, defining effective leadership, and maintaining trust during this transition.
Leaders must become comfortable discussing revenue, productivity, customer value, risk, capital, and growth as much as they do talent. Commercial leadership, which involves understanding how the organisation creates value, is now inseparable from protecting people's trust, organisational culture, and long-term resilience. The opportunity lies in integrating the people agenda with the business agenda.
CEOs leading the business agenda must map out the organisational capability required, its potential impact, and the return on investment. More importantly, business leaders should be able to measure business outcomes, not just activities. The key to success lies in customer centricity. By building capable, empowered, and trusted colleagues, businesses can achieve better outcomes for both customers and the organisation.
To succeed in this rapidly changing landscape, businesses must continuously learn, adapt, and build capability to ensure that human capital becomes a driver of business performance, not a constraint.
Written by urgent.news from Africa Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
