Johannesburg Welcomes Africa’s Largest AI Event & AI4Good Summit

Johannesburg Welcomes Africa’s Largest AI Event & AI4Good Summit. Africa’s largest Artificial Intelligence & Intelligent Automation event, AI Expo Africa, will be running its highly acclaimed conference & trade show at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa 30-31 October 2024.

Now entering its 7th year, the annual AI Expo Africa event unites regional and international thought leaders, suppliers and start-ups to discuss and showcase the latest AI & Smart Tech innovations, from the biggest global brands to the smallest and newest local SMMEs.

The core focus of the show are real world applications you can deploy today with an audience comprised of Enterprise and Government buyers, deployment & service providers, start-ups, educators, NGOs, investors and ecosystem builders.

Nonnie Kubeka, Executive Director of the Gauteng Convention & Event Bureau stated, “We are happy to welcome the growing AI tech ecosystem to the Gauteng Region. Last year AI Expo Africa hosted 48 SMMEs at the event and the gathering helps connect buyers and suppliers around one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy. AI is impacting all industries and certain aspects of society so its key we as a region, and a nation, have a focus on this sector as it’s a key pillar of our ICT activities and we want to showcase the local ecosystem to a regional and international audience.”

With a community of 50k+ practitioners, the show format is built upon the phenomenal success of the previous six annual events that have cemented AI Expo Africa as the largest AI business gathering of its kind, attended by Enterprise buyers, Governments, practitioners, decision makers, international trade missions, vendors and SMMEs.

Dr Nick Bradshaw, Founder of AI Expo Africa & Chairperson of the South African AI Association stated, “This is our 7th Anniversary Edition and biggest show to-date, with over 100 companies in the expo hall, many of which are local and regional SMMEs. The current buzz around generative AI, data centres, national AI strategies, security and AI4Good are just some of the many themes our 60+ speakers and 1700 delegates will be discussing. We are also extremely happy to welcome thought leaders from the likes of Supermicro, Nvidia, Huawei, Google and a visiting delegation from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) AI for Good who will be running an Africa-based startup pitching session at the show, as well as outlining the plans for the inaugural ITU AI for Good Impact Africa Summit.

Frederic Werner, Head of Strategic Engagement at the United Nations ITU holds strategic and operational responsibility for the ITU’s AI for Good community engagement stated, “We are again very excited to be joining the 7th Edition of AI Expo Africa this year as we are running our AI for Good Innovation Factory Africa Challenge at the show and will be announcing the launch of the first official AI for Good Impact Africa regional event to be co-hosted with AI Expo Africa in 2025. We engage with some 1000+ companies, 194 member states and 150+ universities to help drive international standards and policy around the responsible use of AI and related technologies and how they can be applied to help solve the UN SDG goals and wider challenges faced by humanity. We are increasing our efforts across the Africa region and our new AI for Good Impact Africa regional event in 2025 will be another big step in the right direction.”