AVEVA, an industrial software firm, is working to strengthen its presence in Africa, prioritising six key markets as demand for industrial digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) grows across the continent.
This is according to Khaled Salah, AVEVA's vice president for Africa, who spoke with ITWeb Africa on the sidelines of the company's AVEVA Day event on Wednesday in Johannesburg.
Salah, who took over leadership of the region in January this year after the Middle East and Africa market was divided into two separate operations, pointed out that the company has identified Egypt, Morocco, and Algeria in North Africa, as well as South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya in Sub-Saharan Africa, as strategic hubs for deeper customer engagement and investment.
He stated that these markets have a mix of digital maturity, extensive talent pools, supportive regulation, and established industrial sectors.
“There is a lot of investment there in terms of digitalisation. The digital maturity of the countries is quite high. Talent exists—I see a lot of talent. It makes a lot of sense to start there.”
The expansion comes as Africa faces mounting pressure to modernise its industrial base while addressing structural challenges such as energy constraints and infrastructure gaps.
Salah argued that the region’s digital future will be closely tied to how effectively it balances rising artificial intelligence (AI) demand with limited energy supply.
He explained: “In the next 20 years, we will need to provide energy to an additional five billion people globally. Right now, there is one billion who do not have access to energy at all; 60% of that is in Africa. Simultaneously, a lot of energy is required to support data centres for AI.”
Rather than relying solely on new energy generation, which can take years to develop, Salah emphasised the need to optimise existing systems.
Through its industrial software platforms, AVEVA is working with customers to improve operational efficiency across sectors such as mining, energy, and manufacturing.
Salah asserted that companies can reduce energy consumption by between 10% and 20% by leveraging data-driven insights and digital tools.
“If we save energy on the demand side, we can redirect it to support both economic growth and AI workloads,” he noted.
Beyond infrastructure, he highlighted a key challenge in Africa’s AI journey: the gap between data insights and real-world execution.
While many organisations are experimenting with AI, he cautioned that too few are turning insights into operational gains.
“You can create amazing dashboards and analytics, but if you do not take action in the physical world, you do not realise the value of AI. The real value comes when insights lead to action at the operational level.”
Scaling these use cases remains another challenge.
Salah noted that many African organisations are still piloting AI in isolated environments rather than deploying it across entire operations.
“What we see is small proof-of-concept projects. The next step is to scale those use cases across facilities and value chains,” he said.
“AVEVA plays a very important role in this step with CONNECT platform. We can utilise the data, put it into context, and then provide predictions and insights. You can take this insight, connect it to the physical world, and take action.”
Looking ahead, South Africa is expected to play a central role in the firm’s regional strategy. The executive described the country as a foundational market, citing its deep industrial expertise—particularly in mining and energy-intensive sectors as well as a strong and diverse talent base.
As part of its commitment, AVEVA has significantly increased its presence in the country.
“We have doubled our team in South Africa and expanded across all functions—not just sales, but also technical and industrial roles,” Salah said.
The company will continue to leverage a partner-led approach, which Salah referred to as a “sweet spot” to expand its footprint beyond its core markets, working with system integrators and distributors to reach customers across the continent.
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