More than half of South African small businesses are now using AI tools daily or weekly, but many are still struggling to understand where the technology fits into their operations.
Xero’s 2026 State of South African Small Business report found that 52% are using AI tools daily or weekly, while 56% want more support understanding how AI fits their specific operations. A further 34% say they feel overwhelmed by the amount of information about AI.
The findings suggest that the next stage of AI adoption may be less about convincing businesses to use the technology and more about helping them identify where it can solve a real problem.
This is according to Kenne Loubser, Chief Marketing Officer at HyperDev AI, who says that means starting with the business problem rather than the technology. “Most small business owners don’t need another explanation of what AI can theoretically do. They need to solve one specific problem this week. That might be a reporting tool, a client onboarding form or a dashboard that currently lives across three different spreadsheets. The starting point should be the problem, not the technology.”
Xero’s research found that 85% of small businesses are prioritising digital adoption, using automation and AI to speed up manual processes and gain better visibility of their business performance.
That practical approach is becoming more relevant as AI moves further into software development. Gartner predicts that 40% of enterprise applications will include task-specific AI agents by the end of 2026, up from less than 5% in 2025. It also predicts that by 2027, more than 65% of engineering teams using AI-assisted coding will treat traditional development environments as optional rather than essential.
For smaller businesses, this doesn’t mean every founder needs to become a software developer. It means the distance between identifying a problem and testing a potential solution is becoming shorter, without requiring a large development budget or extensive technical expertise upfront.
Loubser recommends that business owners start with three principles:
- Pick something low-risk and high-friction: An internal reporting tool, a client onboarding form or a dashboard currently spread across several spreadsheets can be useful starting points, because the benefit is relatively easy to identify and the consequences of getting it wrong are limited.
- Build something the team can see: A working first version, even a rough one, can show people what an AI-enabled tool can actually do. This makes the potential value more tangible than a presentation about AI in the abstract.
- Measure time, not opinion: Track how long the task takes before and after introducing the tool. The more useful question is not whether the technology feels impressive, but whether it saves time, improves an experience or frees people up for higher-value work.
“None of this requires a big AI initiative,” he points out. “It requires picking one task that takes longer than it should and being consistent about fixing it.”
HyperDev is a generative AI tech company founded by founders of former tech companies collectively worth >R1 billion, and ex OpenAI + Google GenAI research talent. It was created as a spinout company from the edtech company HyperionDev.
The technology does not remove the need for human judgement. Deciding what to build, how it should work and whether it is ready for customers remains a human responsibility. What changes is how early a non-technical founder can explore an idea before committing to a larger development project.
“The businesses that benefit most from AI won’t necessarily be the ones running the biggest AI initiative,” Loubser says. “They’ll be the ones that get comfortable solving small, practical problems, measure whether those solutions actually make a difference, and then build from there.”