Artificial intelligence is no longer experimental. It is already embedded in ordinary business activities, from drafting documents and profiling customers to automating decisions, monitoring behaviour, generating content and analysing risk.

At Juta’s May 2026 webinar, POPIA and AI: Friends, Frenemies or Future Partners?, Advocate Pansy Tlakula, Chairperson of the Information Regulator, placed AI firmly in the POPIA context. Her message was practical: AI may offer efficiency and competitiveness, but it must still comply with existing law. POPIA should remain the legal backbone of AI regulation in South Africa, with AI-specific rules complementing rather than replacing it.