The range of investments that organizations across a myriad of sectors are currently making in AI is well documented. Companies are currently obsessed with agent AI as they look to provide more multimodal, AI-powered solutions to their employees to improve productivity.
It remains to be seen whether this investment will actually have the impact that many hope, but Salesforce is asking more important questions locally.
The question is whether South African business leaders are doing enough to secure entry-level AI jobs.
In an op-ed shared with Hypertext, Ursula Fear (pictured above), senior talent program manager at Salesforce, says local leaders need to prepare new professionals for future roles.
“Given all the speculation that AI will eliminate entry-level jobs, it’s no wonder young South Africans are anxious about starting their careers,” Fear said, citing the latest figures showing South Africa’s unemployment rate at 31.4% (7.8 million people).
“Even graduates are not alone, with the graduate unemployment rate at 10.3%, year-on-year analysis shows that unemployment is rising, not falling. In this already tense labor market, entry-level tasks that have historically been the first rung on the ladder are being automated by AI,” she stressed.
Fear rather refreshingly pointed out that when it comes to the paradigm-shifting effects of AI in the workplace, the onus is now on business leaders, not just employees. For a while now, the rhetoric around AI has been that it won’t replace jobs, but that people without AI skills will be replaced by people with AI skills.
Here, Fear emphasized that business leaders need to play an active role in ensuring that AI opens up new opportunities, rather than closing them off.
“Integrity is now expected of business leaders. Yes, AI is eliminating some traditional entry-level tasks and the path to professional work is changing. But as before, in the early days of the Internet, If businesses are committed to creating new roles that combine human judgment and AI capabilities, then AI need not reduce opportunities. The change is not from employment to unemployment. It is from execution to judgment.
“And South Africa has a large young population and an urgent need to create meaningful jobs, and if we get this right we stand to gain more than almost any other economy on the continent.”
The challenge and opportunity that Salesforce executives see is that as AI and automation make task execution nearly instantaneous, organizations need to focus on decisions. So those who can work with AI to make better-informed decisions will be the ones who make the difference going forward.
“The new skill set is centered around assessment and direction: assessing whether an AI-generated client proposal reflects the right brand tone and ethical positioning, finding gaps in AI-generated financial models, and asking follow-up questions that guide new strategic direction. These are not technical skills; they are human skills that are enhanced by AI collaboration,” Fear explained.
She also drew on a World Economic Forum report from early 2025 to point out that 170 million new roles are expected to be created around the world this decade, and that rapidly growing numbers will require humans to provide direction, evaluation, and ethical oversight over AI systems.
“South Africa’s situation makes this more urgent, not less. If the judgment-based, AI-enhanced roles that define the Age of Agents are designed only for those who already have access to quality education and digital infrastructure, then this technology will only reinforce South Africa’s existing geographic and socio-economic divides. It is a choice, one that business leaders make by design or by default,” Fear continued.
“When AI handles data collection, report formatting, scheduling, and writing first drafts, the rationale for limiting new hires to those tasks disappears. And when AI handles execution, new hires are engaged in strategic thinking from day one. Success is now focused on impact and contribution, rather than proving themselves through months of mundane tasks,” she noted.
On how the local private sector is playing a role here, Mr Fear highlighted what has been done so far, particularly where concrete initiatives have been taken, highlighting that the Youth Employment Service (YES) has created over 209,000 quality work experiences since its establishment and has so far contributed R12.3 billion to the economy through youth salaries.
“We now need to put similar energies into redesigning what roles within agency companies look like… South Africa has no shortage of people who can think that way. What we need are business leaders who are committed to building roles that can prove it,” she concluded.
It remains to be seen whether such a drive will be furthered in the coming months, especially given the rising cost of living along with a general apathy towards work in SA. At Salesforce, we believe we have a clearly defined path forward, and we hope other organizations do too.
[Image – Provided]
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