Page 8 - EngineerIt May 2021

IN CONVERSATION Deon Geyser holds a master’s degree in engineering management as well as bachelor’s degrees in
electronic engineering and IT from the University of Johannesburg. Prior to joining Liquid Intelligent
Technologies in his 18 year career, he has held senior management positions at Siemens and Millicom
enterprises, but also from medium and International Cellular (Tigo). His most recent position was that of head of Southern Africa and Vodafone
small companies. We have also added Africa for Nokia since 2014.
network services to help with a seamless He is responsible for overseeing the strategic repositioning of the company as Liquid Intelligent
migration into the Liquid cloud. We offer Technologies and the execution of the new strategic direction of providing an integrated technology
comprehensive cyber security systems capability that could enable customers to transform their business through new intelligent technologies.
to our customers and have partnered
with some of the best cyber security businesses more efficiently, effectively, training, cloud training and technology
companies in the world. and taking the right business decision from certification programmes. We are
a shareholder value and an investment supporting a number of universities with
Artificial Intelligence (AI) perspective. We firmly believe in the future bursary schemes.
It was inevitable that my conversation of AI, and the benefit it can bring to our This year we employed one of our
with Deon Geyser would turn to artificial enterprise business customers. PhD students, who is now focussing on
intelligence, as AI is like cloud was a our AI initiatives.
few years ago - the talk of the day! Our social investment shows Liquid Intelligent Technologies is not
Tongue-in- cheek he said: “As part of who we are just another telecom company. It has
our rebranding, we dubbed AI as African As Liquid in South Africa, we’ve made proven itself and is on the high road
intelligence! We however believe that major investments in several provinces, embracing the future! I am sure EngineerIT
we understand Africa and as an African in supporting several corporate social will have many more conversations with
business ourselves, we understand responsibility initiatives. We support Deon and his colleagues. n
how AI, as well as the associated feeding schemes in Eastern Cape and
technologies, can help enhance have taken over the responsibility for
business processes and assist our some of the larger feeding schemes
customers to deliver a better service. in order to deal with malnutrition.
AI is not necessarily there to More pertinent to ICT education and
replace people, it’s really to help us run training programmes, we offer Microsoft

Panel discussion: Artificial Intelligence

and the impact on the world of work

he Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), with all its components Key take outs:
such as Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence in all its formats • One cannot talk about AI without including Machine Learning (ML)
Tand the Internet of Things (IoT) appears to be the main in the discussion.
trending discussion in industry. In the EngineerIT May 2021 panel • AI is not coming for your job, but it will transform the world of work.
discussion we are focussing on AI and its impact on the world of • Reskilling is an empty word unless business takes it seriously.
work. Four panellist share their views on three main topics: • With the world changing under your feet, you as an individuals also
need to take responsibility and embrace the new world of work.
• What is the future of work in an AI world?
• How should industry prepare for an AI world? and Join the conversation https://www.engineerit.co.za/sites/default/
• What is the way forward for people whose jobs are displaced? files/audio/article/202105/engineeritaipaneldiscussion.mp3

Ian Jansen van Rensburg Jan Vermeulen Johan Steyn Rudeon Snell
Lead technologist and Editor at large at Consultant at IQ Business Global Senior Director:
senior systems engineering Mybroadband and freelance and soon taking up a position Industries and Customer
manager at VMWare investigative technology at PWC. He also leads the AI Advisory at SAP
journalist and autonomous automation
interest group at IITPSA

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