AI skills in South Africa: Surging demand, new challenges

Key topics:

• AI job demand in SA up 352% since 2019

• ChatGPT now vital skill across industries

• Universities push for ethical AI training

Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.

Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.

If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.

By Myles Illidge

Pnet’s latest Job Market Trends report has revealed that demand for AI skills in South Africa has surged by 352% over the past six years.

Additionally, one of the most in-demand skills for traditional roles is expertise in using OpenAI’s ChatGPT to generate content.

“Vacancy data shows that demand for AI skills has risen sharply in recent years. Since 2019, advertised jobs requiring AI expertise have increased by 352%,” says Pnet.

“Over the past three years alone, demand has grown by 79%. This shows a strong upward trend.”

Looking at more recent timeframes, Pnet’s data shows that demand for AI skills is up 77% year-on-year in the first half of 2025.

The job platform clarified between two distinct categories of AI-related vacancies, driving growth in the market:

• AI jobs — specialist roles directly involved in designing, building, and training AI applications. For example, machine learning engineers.

• AI-skilled jobs — traditional roles that increasingly require proficiency with AI tools. For example, a content creator with experience using platforms like ChatGPT.

“Demand for both categories has expanded sharply over the past six years. While specialist AI jobs led the early surge, demand for AI-skilled workers has quickly accelerated,” says Pnet.

“In the first half of 2025, it began to overtake demand for dedicated AI roles.”

Looking at specific demand for these skills, demand for AI jobs has increased by 252% over the past six years, with the growth in demand slowing in the past three years to 31%.

According to Pnet, the most in-demand AI roles include AI software developers, data scientists, data engineers, and machine learning engineers.

In contrast, demand for AI skills has risen more sharply, with a growth rate of 488% over the past six years and 151% in the past three.

Pnet said the top AI skills employers in South Africa seek include general know-how about AI tools, expertise with the Zapier AI platform, and experience in using ChatGPT.

“AI is no longer confined to specialist positions,” says Pnet.

“From software developers to content creators, the demand for AI expertise is reshaping career paths across industries.”

It adds that employers and job seekers who quickly adapt to these trends will be well-positioned to benefit from this shift.

According to Pnet’s data, the high demand for AI professionals is geographically in Gauteng at 58% of vacancies, followed by the Western Cape at 24%.

“There is also a small but notable share of opportunities beyond South Africa’s borders — with 3% of AI vacancies advertised for international roles and 2% listed as remote (work-from-home) positions,” it says.

Read More:

South African universities pushing for ethical AI use

AI engineer and Zaio founder Akhil Boddu says universities should train students to use AI tools, rather than discouraging them from using the technology for assignments.

However, he said there should be some caveats. Commenting on the University of Cape Town’s removal of AI detection software, Boddu said he supported the approach as AI use will be critical for future jobs.

“The point of education is to have people go into industry after graduation and, of course, lead with research,” he said.

“In industry, the need for people to know AI tools, being comfortable using ChatGPT or whatever AI tools are relevant, has become so important.”

This is largely why he supports the removal of AI detectors at the University of Cape Town. He said it discourages students from using the technology.

However, he believes students should cite their use of the technology in their work, much like they would cite sources in a research paper. He said they should provide a log of their interactions.

“There should be a new step for students where they have to log their histories with ChatGPT. How did they prompt ChatGPT? How did they derive that final solution?” said Boddu.

“Having an extra page to just have full disclosures of how AI was used in the assignment, I think that’ll be very helpful.”

He added that this would force institutions to change the way they do assignments, making them more effective for industry.

*This article was originally published by MyBroadband and has been republished with permission.