FEATURE: AI NETWORKING
What lessons can South Africa learn from global case studies? routing for coverage, and letting cloud-managed AI do the heavy lifting on monitoring and optimisation.
One of my favourite case studies at the event was Anfield Stadium in Liverpool. It is a 139-year-old structure, retrofitted with high-performance Wi-Fi without compromising the building’ s heritage. That kind of challenge felt familiar.
Here in South Africa, we have our own‘ Anfields’. For example, historic schools, government buildings, and commercial parks that need modern connectivity without major structural changes.
AI fits perfectly in those contexts. It makes the most of the network you have, squeezing out performance gains, spotting hidden issues, and keeping things stable in environments that are anything but simple.
We have started applying these principles locally. On large urban campuses and in remote warehouses alike, we are using AI to design and manage networks that deliver consistent performance. We are layering in LTE fallback for resilience, enabling mesh-aware
Why must South African network professionals act now?
If you are a network professional in South Africa, I believe now is the time to lean into AI. The complexity is already here. The budgets and headcounts are not getting bigger. What can change is how you use your time and how quickly you can act when the network is at risk.
Waiting until AI in networking feels‘ safe’ will not just mean you are behind on the technology. It just means you are behind on skills, efficiency, and on delivering the experience your users expect.
At Duxbury Networking, we are committed to helping South African organisations embrace AI in a way that is practical, reliable, and contextually relevant. Because in our line of work, the ultimate goal has not changed: networks that just work. The difference now is that AI is no longer a nice-to-have in getting there. It is essential. p
40 INTELLIGENTCIO AFRICA www. intelligentcio. com