Business

Peter Reid, VisionAI

AI is set to transform the world, or so we’re told. Yet enterprise adoption has been less than impressive, and there is persistent talk of an AI bubble. What is needed, say local startups, are fewer gimmicky apps and more real-world solutions.

Take the example of Johannesburg-based VisionAI. The startup, which develops visual AI solutions to help manufacturers boost their productivity, recently concluded pilots with two large local bakeries and is now in talks to sign on bakers in the US. Visual AI essentially replaces a person and a clipboard with cameras connected to a computer where an algorithm analyses the images, something CEO Peter Reid refers to as “the unsexy part of AI”.