AI Expo Africa 2023
Curating a World class programme from global & local 4IR thought leaders
2nd – 3rd November
Sandton Convention Centre, JHB, South Africa
Every year we strive to curate a cutting edge programme packed with the latest trends, innovations, case studies and demos of 4IR technology impacting business and society TODAY. Over the last 5 editions of the show we have united 298 exhibitors, 364 speakers, 2649 companies and 5998 delegates who have reported high satisfaction scores for both content, admin and value from the AI Expo Africa event series. From the largest corporates to the smallest start-ups, we fuse them together in a highly rated 4 track speaking programme and trade expo allied to a networking and social programme second to none.

AI Expo Africa – Proudly showcasing 5 years of local & global thought leadership in the Africa region.
Excellence & quality assured
Feedback from our sponsors, delegates, speakers and community members is overwhelmingly positive with a 4.9 / 5 star Google Business rating from our delegates, speakers and sponsors – Click on our Google Business listing and read the reviews HERE.
“This was an amazing event with an incredible roster of speakers and talents! ”
“Great event”
“Very well organised and usually with international speakers in the line up”
“Throughly enjoyed the talks”
“What an amazing global initiative”
“Thank you to the amazing AI trailblazers”
“So much potential on the African continent, endless possibilities”
“Visiting the AI Expo Africa this past weekend was nothing short of amazing”
“It’s great to see how South Africa’s AI ecosystem is growing”
2023 Programme Overview
The AI Expo Africa 2023 two day programme will follow a similar agenda to our 2022 event ……
- 10,000 Sq Foot Expo Hall
- 75x vendors & 4x showcase pavilions
- 4x Track speaking programme (52 speakers)
- 3x Plenary Keynotes & 4x Panels
- Women in AI Pavilion
- Gauteng SMME Pavilion
- Startup Zone
- University R&D Poster Zone
- Art Gallery & Creative AI Zone
- Data Science Hackathon
- Industrial Robot & Drone showcase
- 4x 3 hour AI Skills workshops for 800 people
- 7x networking sessions
- Media Zone
- Fully catered VIP Lounge
- Meetup Bar
- Event Networking App
- VIP private opening event
Vendors & partners who joined us in 2022
IBM, ARM, Intel, NVIDIA, Automation Anywhere, UN ITU, Blue Prism, Mustek, NITheCS, Technology Innovation Agency, Ecosystem AI, InstaDeep, BotCity, WEF 4IR Centre, Cyborg Intell, Pure Storage, TinyML, IGS Solutions, Social Lab, The Awareness Company, Saucecode, Deep Learning Café, Zindi Africa, Predictive Insights, Spatialedge, Swiss Trade Delegation, Analytix Engine, Melio AI, OQLIS Software Corporation, Orca Mobile Data, TAIR, Bantu Soft, Seven Hats, AIESEC, Cirrus AI, GIZ, SW7, Socially Acceptable, Abaguquli, Envisionit Deep AI, LocumBase, Niche Integrated Solutions, Nubian Smarts, UC Wireless, Simsciex Tech, THE SKILLS MINE, Zoie Health, South African Tourism Enlabeler, Izwe.ai, HyperCap, Data Sciences Corporation, CTRL Robotics, Ashanti.ai, Analytics Hive, Lebria ai, Cognitive Systems, PAISA Technologies, MedSol AI and Quickloc8.
Themes we will be exploring in 2023
From real-world case studies to detailed tech demos the event aims to engage delegates about the current and near term state-of-the-art, best practice, available technology and cloud platforms, deployment challenges, ethical considerations allied to the vibrant innovation and start up ecosystem driving the industry in Africa TODAY.
- Machine / Deep Learning Business Solutions
- RPA / Intelligent Automation
- Chatbots / Conversational AI
- Big Data / Data Ops / Analytics
- Cloud / Data Centre / Storage / Super Computing
- ML Ops / ML Commons
- Security / DevSecOps
- IoT / 5G / Mobile / Edge
- Smart Devices / Hardware
- Autonomous Systems / Industrial Robots
- AR / VR / Mixed Reality
- Creative Media / Generative AI
- Training / Education & Skills
- Women & Youth in AI
- Applied University R&D
- AI4Good / Ethics / Privacy / Standards / Regulation & Policy
- Smart Cities / Smart Society & Smart Citizen
- National AI Strategies / Community Building
AI Expo Africa 2022 Programme (Detail)

VIP Opening, Plenary keynotes & Moderators
- Janneke Vrijland – Deputy Head of Mission at Embassy of The Netherlands (South Africa)
- Véronique Haller – Deputy Head Of Mission: Embassy Of Switzerland (South Africa)
- PLENARY KEYNOTE 1 – Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to drive socio-economic impact in African economies – Joris Cyizere – Ag. Managing Director – Centre for the 4th Industrial Revolution (Rwanda)
- PLENARY KEYNOTE 2 – National Legal Frameworks for AI – Hon Deputy Minister, Emma Theofelus Ministry of Information and Communication Technology in the Republic of Namibia (Namibia)
- PLENARY KEYNOTE 3 – Connecting the world with AI in the age of data regulations Walter Riviera – Intel Corporation (Italy)
- PLENARY KEYNOTE 4 – Accelerating AI Ecosystems Partnerships – Stephen Ozoigbo Senior Director, Emerging Economies Arm Ltd (USA)
- Keith Jones – CEO – SW7 (South Africa)
- Nick Bradshaw – CEO AI Media (South Africa)
- Shamira Ahmed – Technical Advisor: Data Economy GIZ (South Africa)
- Naomi Melofe – Community Lead Women in Big Data SA (South Africa)
- Sylvester Albanie – Investment Principal, Hlayisani Capital (South Africa)
- Rumbidzai Shumba – Senior Legal Counsel, ABSA (South Africa)
- Nazareen Ebrahim – Founder & CEO Naz Consulting International (South Africa)
- Deshni Govender – Focal Point: South Africa GIZ (South Africa)
- Gregg Barrett – CEO Cirrus AI (South Africa)
- Roy Forbes – Senior Researcher – Wits University (South Africa)
- TRACK KEYNOTE – 4IR and “Legacy Technology” – How we leverage off the “Old” to Enable the “New” Morgan Malyon – Huawei Enterprise Technologies at Mustek (South Africa)
- TRACK KEYNOTE – Scaling AI for Good problem solving globally – Frederic Werner – United Nations ITU AI4Good (Switzerland)
- How AI is revolutionising retail at Pepkor – Pierre le Roux Spatialedge & Venette Van Zyl De Villiers Pepkor (South Africa)
- Human Organism as Algorithm – Jay van Zyl – ecosystem.Ai (USA)
- AI-Powered Recommender Systems in Retail – Dino Bernicchi – Homechoice International (South Africa)
- NGO 2.0: The role of artificial intelligence in driving social impact – Brent Davidoff – Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator (South Africa)
- Application of recent ML developments in credit data science – Andre Blaauw – JD Group (South Africa)
- Partnerships in Data Science – Ekow Duker – Zindi (South Africa)
- Prevention by prediction: a trialed, tested and validated approach to tackling wildlife crime – Estelle Lubbe – The Awareness Company (South Africa)
- Built To Sell. Getting Your AI Solution to Market Effectively to Drive Scale and Adoption – Keith Jones – Sw7
- Mapping the African AI Ecosystem & State of AI in Africa Report – Nick Bradshaw – AI Media (South Africa)
- Changing the way mobility works – Chantalle ten Napel Wilson – GoodBuyCar (South Africa)
- TRACK KEYNOTE – XR, the metaverse and the University of Johannesburg – Herman Myburgh – University of Johannesburg (South Africa)
- TRACK KEYNOTE – Modern Data and Analytics Solutions – Kim Ormiston – Pure Storage (South Africa)
- Python RPA for tech teams – a new approach – Lorhan Caproni – BotCity (Brazil)
- TinyML where AI meets IoT at the Edge – Peter Ing – Ingenuity IoT (South Africa)
- How to win in the global data race with inclusivity, unbiasedness and representation – Ridha Moosa – Enlabeler (South Africa)
- Exploring Bantu languages as a knowledge graph in Neo4j – Tawanda Ewing – Deep Learning Cafe (South Africa)
- HyperCAP – An Overview – Chayan Bhattacharyay – HyperCAP (South Africa)
- The Future of AI in Financial Services, with Case Studies – Bryan McLachlan – CyborgIntell (South Africa)
- Understanding Enterprise RPA scalability: An Intelligent Document Processing approach to Digital Transformation – Tholang Mathopa – Leriba AI (South Africa)
- Predicting the future with economics and machine learning – Neil Rankin – Predictive Insights (South Africa)
- Falling in Love with Big Data – Mmabatho Mokiti – Mathemaniacs (South Africa)
- The Fall of the Data Science Practitioner and the Rise of AutoML Toolkits – Thabang Mathonsi – Ozow (South Africa)
- TRACK KEYNOTE – A scalable model for AI in business – Islam Zeidan – IBM (Dubai)
- TRACK KEYNOTE – Boosting Industry 4.0 for Small and Medium Enterprises – Ntsibane Ntlatlapa Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (South Africa)
- Shaping the digital future: An AI&XR perspective – Reevana Balmahoon – CSIR (South Africa)
- Making AI Policy strategic for business- the Swiss Approach – Ayisha Piotti – ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
- On bridging the gap between research and application – Arnu Pretorius – InstaDeep (South Africa)
- From Data to Analytics to AI strategy in the enterprise – Stefan Steffen – Telkom (South Africa)
- AI Policy Dynamics in Africa: The West, East & South – who is leading? Deshni Govender – GIZ (South Africa)
- PANEL 1 – AI 4 Good – How is AI & DeepTech impacting progress with UN SDGs & how can we advance this ?
- PANEL 2- Regulation & Ethics – Where are we & where are we heading?
- PANEL 2 – Challenges to Adoption of AI in Africa – What’s working & How can we improve?
- Built To Sell. Getting Your AI Solution to Market Effectively to Drive Scale and Adoption – Keith Jones – Sw7
- The Future of Mobility in Africa – Reviewing Africa’s 4IR infrastructural capabilities – Janet Sawari – The AI Review (South Africa)
- TRACK KEYNOTE – Automation is a buffet, not a la carte – Christiaan Kriel – iOCO (South Africa)
- TRACK KEYNOTE – Moving towards regulating artificial intelligence in South Africa – Nathan-Ross Adams – Michalsons (South Africa)
- Analysis Of The Gartner Hype Cycle for AI – Cobus Greyling – Conversational AI Analyst (South Africa)
- Responsible AI for Mental Health and Well Being, World-class Resources for Social Good! – Alexsai Srour – SocialLab (Estonia)
- Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Climate Action – Wei Xiao – NVIDIA (USA)
- How to accelerate time-to-value from your AI/ML use cases – Greg Desilla – Melio AI (South Africa)
- Application of AI in retail – Takalani Madzhadzhi – Ashanti AI (South Africa)
- How Ctrl used robots to improve an African Hospital – Nikhil Ranchod – Ctrl Robotics (South Africa)
- What is “best practice”? – Daniel – Wertheimer – Absa (South Africa)
- Delivering Actionable Enterprise Insights Leveraging Natural Language Processing – Justice Chikomba – Analytics Hive (South Africa)
- Resilience Engineeing of Intelligent Automation – Kgosi Molefe – Standard Bank South Africa (South Africa)
- Machine learning at Takealot – Axel Tidemann – Takealot (South Africa)
2022 Academic Poster Presentation
Our academic poster programme (Innovation wall) is always massive success and its running again for our 2022 5th Anniversary Edition, helping share R&D innovation with industry practitioners and investors. The posters being showcased in our 2021 edition include;
- A Model To Investigate The Security Challenges And Vulnerabilities Of Cloud Computing Services In Wireless Networks – Wolaita Sodo University
- Solar Panel Detection in Satellite Images: A Pixel-Wise Approach – University of Pretoria
- Automation 4 Good – Dimension Data/North-West University
- A Model To Investigate The Security Challenges And Vulnerabilities Of Cloud Computing Services In Wireless Networks – Wolaita Sodo University
- Identifying and counting commercial solar installations in south Africa – University of Pretoria
- Vulnerability to Substance Use Among University of Ilorin Students; A Machine Learning Approach – ONE Innovation Hub
- Automatic detection of defects and features of EL images using semantic segmentation – CSIR
- The Development of a Behavioural Learning Model for a Human-Robot Manipulation System – Tshwane University of Technology
- Development of an Autonomous Collaborative Robotic System for Indoor Environments – Tshwane University of Technology
- Deep Learning-based Recognition of Dynamic Human Emotions – Tshwane University of Technology
- Flexible and intuitive task specifications for automated warehouses – RAIL Lab – University of the Witwatersrand
- A tool-kit of techniques to make computer vision models easier to train and evaluate – University of the Witwatersrand
AI Expo Africa is proudly partnering with AIESEC – A global platform for young people to explore and develop their leadership potential. AIESEC are a non-political, independent, not-for-profit organization run by students and recent graduates of institutions of higher education. Together we are helping develop leadership and management skills for young people to progress their careers.