ORADA Responsible AI Innovation (ORAII) News and Commentary Friday - 19 December 2025

As we wrap up 2025, we have witnessed Artificial Intelligence move beyond the boardroom whiteboard and into high-impact, real-world applications across Africa and beyond. 🌍🚀 We show you how in this inaugural ORADA Responsible AI Innovation (ORAII) News and Commentary Roundup.

Author

Avela Gronemeyer
December 19, 2025

In this ORAII News and Commentary Friday Roundup

  1. South Africa: The New "Emerging Leader" in RAI 🌍 

  2. The $1 Trillion Roadmap: A G20-Backed Future 📈🚀

  3. Responsible Fintech & Sustainable Green-Tech: The November Surge 🌿

  4. Africa’s First AI Travel Assistant: Siyanda AI Takes Flight 🇿🇦📍

  5. The "First AI Christmas": Theory Meets Practice 🎁🛍️

  6. ORADA 2026 - The Year Ahead 🗓️

  7. ORAII News Roundup Further Reading 📖

Lead. Learn. Share. Soar!

The ORADA 2026 Conference will again bring together global minds, strategies, methods and practice cases from Thursday 08 October to Friday 09 October 2026.

ORADA Conference: 08 - 09 October 2024

At ORADA, we remain committed to a future where technological power is harnessed through the lens of AI ethics, inclusion and sustainability. ⚖️🌱

We believe in balancing opportunity with accountability, and we have seen that balance struck in remarkable ways this year—from the retail aisles of Europe to the fintech hubs of South Africa. 🇿🇦✨🇪🇺

As we prepare to recharge for the year ahead, we invite you to reflect on the five key events that are defining the trajectory for Responsible AI (RAI) and AI Innovation.🧘🏾‍♀️🧠🕯️

 

1. South Africa: The New "Emerging Leader" in RAI 🌍 

A landmark study by Zoho ranked South Africa as an "Emerging Leader" in Responsible AI adoption. The report underscores that South African organisations are moving beyond mere adoption toward a 'privacy-first' framework. The following findings take centre stage:

✅Proactive Governance: 74% of South African organisations reinforced their privacy protocols following AI implementation.

✅Ethical Benchmarking: 40% are prioritizing AI ethics and responsible usage.

🤔ORADA Commentary: These findings confirm that a growing majority of South African organisations no longer view privacy as a hurdle to innovation, but rather as a fundamental catalyst for it. It’s no longer, “move fast and break things” but rather, “move fast and build trust. 

🧭Navigation Tip: Responsible AI Innovation is seeing a shift from being on the edges to being a standard business practice, a value creator and a custodian the company reputation. If your organisation or business isn’t already centering RAII, take a leadership position using this data to build a case for RAII and lead the way. And, while you’re at it, why not use Collab Wednesdays to see what support you can get from the ORAII Community. 

2. The $1 Trillion Roadmap: A G20-Backed Future 📈🚀

In a landmark move under the G20 Digital Transformation Working Group, the African Development Bank (AfDB) unveiled its latest strategic roadmap: 'Africa’s AI Productivity Gain.' This report provides a definitive blueprint for unlocking the continent's economic potential, focusing on how inclusive AI adoption can drive labor efficiency and transformative growth across Africa.

The roadmap envisions a future where inclusive AI adds a staggering US$1 trillion to Africa’s GDP by 2035. To reach this milestone, the AfDB proposes a structured evolution—Ignition, Consolidation, and Scale—with a high focus on Agriculture and Finance to ensure the digital revolution remains accessible to all.

🤔ORADA Commentary: The next 10 years will be about exploiting this value and looking at the opportunities that fit your organisation and start-up. With the roadmap containing vision elements such as 50–100 high-impact pilots, scaling successful models and building regional "data corridors” and full continent-wide integration across all sectors - opportunities abound. 

🧭Navigation Tip: Pull out your strategy, analyse this roadmap and conduct a strategic review with the roadmap in mind. What role does your organisation or business have to play in capturing some of this value and what benefits can it derive from doing so? How can you structure those opportunities so that the capital resources being made available for this roadmap are more accessible to you? Human capital has been highlighted as the biggest barrier to this trillion dollar value opportunity, so define not just the tools, but also tangibly outline the human capital development needs to execute on same. 

3. Responsible Fintech & Sustainable Green-Tech: The November Surge 🌿

November 2025 saw a massive influx of capital into South African innovation, signaling high investor confidence in the region’s tech ecosystem:

  • Capitec Acquisition of Walletdoc: November 2025 marked a pivotal moment in the fintech landscape with Capitec’s $23 million acquisition of Walletdoc. Known for its robust, large-scale AI integration, Capitec is moving beyond traditional banking to become a comprehensive technology platform. The launch of its inaugural Innovation Exchange highlights this shift, showcasing how the bank is utilizing advanced AI and IoT to make financial services more accessible and affordable for all South Africans. 🤔ORADA Commentary: As a company in a highly regulated industry that’s using AI for fraud prevention and financial inclusion - one with a strong ethics and inclusion focus - Capitec is one of the companies to watch, when it comes to Responsible AI Innovation.

  • SolarSaver Funding: In a win for sustainable tech, SolarSaver raised $60 million in equity funding to expand clean energy access across Southern Africa. With substantial backing from Inspired Evolution, FMO, and Swedfund, the deal underscores a surging investor confidence in decentralized energy solutions and demonstrates a robust investment case for Africa. 🤔ORADA Commentary: With the pressure that data centres that host AI solutions are placing on electricity and water resources, clean sustainable solutions have an indispensable role to play and there aren’t enough players on the field. 

🧭Navigation Tip: We expect the rise of Green AI to lead to it becoming centred in stakeholder and investor expectations, so if you’re in the energy space you can be part enabling Green AI, so get on the playing field. Additionally, the Capitec example should be our inspiration for using AI to solve for real friction points with impactful outcomes, e.g. Capitec prevented R300m from being lost to fraud. 

4. Africa’s First AI Travel Assistant: Siyanda AI Takes Flight 🇿🇦📍

South Africa Tourism made history this year by launching Siyanda AI, the continent's first-ever AI travel assistant. Designed to revolutionize the visitor experience, Siyanda provides real-time, personalized travel recommendations while adhering to strict ethical data standards. For those planning a getaway this festive season, this innovation promises a seamless and intuitive travel experience.

🤔ORADA Commentary: We recently heard the CEO of AirBnB making AI analogous to electricity. There is no part of society or the economy that will not be AI enabled, powered or led and examples like Siyanda AI are another affirmation that innovation and responsibility go hand-in-hand. 

🧭Navigation Tip: Try Siyanda out this festive season and while doing so, reflect on the opportunities for responsible AI Innovation to remove friction in your daily work and personal life. 

5. The "First AI Christmas": Theory Meets Practice 🎁🛍️

The 2025 festive season has been officially dubbed the 'First AI Christmas' by industry analysts. This milestone marks a pivotal transition where Responsible AI (RAI) has moved beyond theory into large-scale retail application, as nearly half of all consumers now embrace AI agents to navigate their holiday shopping. This shows that Agentic Commerce (AI agents performing tasks on behalf of humans) is moving from a technical ‘in-lab’ concept into a mass-market retail reality. This is a powerful reminder that when technology is designed with the human experience in mind, it doesn't just change how we shop—it redefines how we live

🤔ORADA Commentary: With 74% of heavy AI users reporting that these tools inspire confidence when they are unsure what to buy, reducing the "choice paralysis" typical of the holidays, this trend is likely to sky-rocket. Considering Europe is one of most regulated regions when it comes to AI, digital technologies and data protection, the myth that regulation is inherently counter-innovation is fortunately breaking down. 

🧭Navigation Tip: If you’re like most people, you’ve left your gift shopping to the last minute and this may be a saving grace. Plus, if you’re in Europe or South Africa, chances are that agentic commerce tools are built to observe data privacy, but check this if you need to be sure. If you’re in retail: is your organisation leveraging agentic commerce and, if not, how can you (responsibly) catch-up so that next year becomes your first AI Christmas?

ORADA 2026 - Now, let's look ahead to what you can expect in the new year 🗓️

We’re excited to have launched the ORADA 2026 Season this past October with two powerful ORADA Leadership Conversations. A huge thank you to our guests:

📈 Kele Boakgomo (CEO of behavioral science-based career platform YuGrow) 

🧬 Sam Decombel (CEO of DNA-based health platform Fitness Genes)

Now, let’s look at the rhythm of the new year:

✨ WEEKLY / BI-WEEKLY CYCLE ON THE WHATSAPP COMMUNITY GROUP 🟢💬

🤝 Collab Wednesday: While you can post anytime, every Wednesday we’ll remind you to introduce yourself and share your business or work “co-elevation” needs. (Frequency: Weekly)

🧠 Community of Practice Thursday: Sharing knowledge and experiences is at the core of how we grow together and take more responsibility in co-creating our collective (AI) Future. We’ll invite you to share ORAII case studies you’ve led or joined. These will be featured in the group and in the ORADA Newsletter (reaching 3,000+ subscribers!). (Frequency: Bi-weekly)

📰 RAI Innovation News and Commentary Friday: An ORAII News Roundup featuring the top Responsible AI Innovation news, plus our own commentary to help you navigate these. (Frequency: Weekly)

🕯️ Dark Valley Sunday: To give “Dark Valley” requests the time and attention they need, we’ll post these on Sundays to allow those willing to provide guidance and support the time needed to give this guidance. (Frequency: As needed)

🌍 THE ORADA 2026 CYCLE

🎙️ ORADA Leadership Conversations: We’ll continue our focus on pioneering leadership through tech, including an HR in the Age of Tech conversation with Khaya Ngcwembe, Vice President: Human Resources and Training at Toyota South Africa

🎧 Conference Podcasts: We’re breathing life and “agelessness” into past conversations and conference sessions to ensure anytime access for the long-term.

🎓 ORADA Masterclasses: Based on the positive feedback about the ORADA Conference Workshops, we’re looking forward to offering hands-on Masterclasses every 2–3 months.

🗓️ ORADA 2026 Conference: With an attendance of 372 over 2 days and raving reviews, ORADA 2026 returns 08–09 October 2026.

Check out the vibe from last year here: 

We’re looking forward to a year of growth and elevation, together! 🚀✨

 

Visit the ORADA Conference site  and join the waiting list to be amongst the first to be notified when we release early bird tickets on in February 2026!

The ORADA Conference is brought to you by Inno Yolo . You can read more about the ORADA conference, our vision for the future and the conference organiser here

❝

Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make. It will not only improve your life, it will improve the lives of all those around you.

Robin Sharma

PS: If you think someone else would benefit from these conversations and our periodic newsletter, do share our sign-up page with them

ORAII News Roundup Further Reading 📖

The AI Privacy Equation - Cautious Innovation in South Africa:

Africa’s AI Revolution - African Development Bank report projects $1 trillion in additional GDP by 2035 with use of AI to enhance productivity:

Capitec Acquires Walletdoc:

SolarSaver and Sedgeley secure major international investment to accelerate clean-energy expansion across Southern Africa:

South Africa Tourism Launches Africa’s First Ever AI Travel Assistant:

Holiday shopping 2025: