TeleSUR: AI reshapes South Africa finance as watchdogs plan rules

The South African case shows how quickly AI is moving from pilot to infrastructure status even in emerging markets. According to the FSCA/ARP survey cited in the report, a majority of banks and roughly half of payment providers are already deploying AI tools, with several institutions investing more than 20 million rand in 2024 alone. At the same time, regulators are only now preparing a discussion paper on AI risks, including privacy, bias and systemic vulnerabilities.

For the AGI race, this matters because it highlights a key vector of diffusion: financial regulators in the Global South are wrestling with AI not as a distant frontier concern, but as an immediate operational reality in credit, fraud detection and claims processing. If they move toward clear, risk‑based guidelines rather than blunt bans, they can accelerate responsible adoption and generate diverse, non‑Western use cases that feed back into model development.

Conversely, opaque or heavy‑handed rules could entrench a small number of large incumbents who can afford compliance, slowing down competitive experimentation. South Africa’s choices will be watched by other African regulators and by BRICS‑aligned countries that share similar infrastructure constraints and inclusion goals.