11/06/2026
Just because you can build it, does not mean you should.
AI has lowered the barrier to building software. It has not lowered the need for judgement, and that gap is where most of the value is won or lost.
There are thousands of apps and systems being built right now to "solve" a problem, with many more on the way, and very few of them properly understand the problem they are claiming to solve. You can generate a working interface, wire up a database, and ship something that looks finished, and still have built the wrong thing entirely. The difficult part was never the building. It is knowing what to build and why.
That is as true in South Africa as anywhere, and arguably more so. Connectivity, budgets and the realities of how local businesses actually operate matter every bit as much as the code does. The opportunity here is not to chase whatever AI trend happens to be loudest in a given quarter. It is to apply the technology practically, and deliberately, to real operational problems that are worth solving.
At Claer & Volker, AI is a tool. Not a one-stop shop, and not a shortcut around expertise. We use it as part of a broader engineering toolkit while keeping full responsibility for the work we deliver, because that responsibility is exactly where the trust sits.
[Link to the full article in the first comment.]
