As digital technology continues to revolutionize industries at an incredible speed, it is essential for leaders not just to adapt, but to proactively drive change and shape the future.

In 2024, digital transformation remains a critical business priority across all industries. Deloitte surveyed 70 percent of 1600 global executives across six key industries who all agreed that digital transformation remains the most important investment for driving future value.

Deloitte spoke to more than 400 CEOs across industries and around the globe about how they view the chief executive’s role in digital transformation initiatives, and the picture that emerged has been thought-provoking.

The CEO’s role is not only critical in enabling the organization to transform digitally, but it is also fundamentally different depending on each CEO’s ambition for transformation and the organization’s readiness for change.

Business goals and objectives also vary significantly, with many opting to implement a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, move the entire organization to the cloud, begin with AI or focus on new customer-facing mobile applications as new revenue streams.

Lessons from the field show that the CEO’s ambition for digital transformation should go well beyond implementing new digital tools just because they’re readily available or trendy. Instead, it should encapsulate how the transformation adds strategic value to the organization, with the understanding that the cloud plays a pivotal role in laying a solid foundation.

When implemented correctly, the cloud can create a ripple effect across the organization, serving as a critical value multiplier.

Africa’s opportunity to lead

Digital adoption in Africa is expected to grow exponentially over the next few years, unlocking significant economic value and contributing positively to overall gross domestic product. While this is plausible across all African countries, it is particularly prevalent in South, East and West Africa, where the majority of technology investments and skills development initiatives are concentrated.

Augmented by the fact that close to 70 percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is under the age of 30, the future of the world’s talent rests in Africa. The World Economic Forum’s ‘Future of Jobs Report 2023’ highlights that organizations view skills gaps (60%) and difficulties in attracting talent (53%) as primary obstacles to industry transformation.

Across Africa, more organizations are turning to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to drive business transformation. However, migrating to the cloud is a complex process that comes with several challenges and risks. Success requires a well-thought-out strategy, robust architecture, strong cyber security measures, effective cost management and, most importantly, skilled talent.

Deloitte and AWS aim to impact 100 million and 29 million lives respectively across the globe. In Africa, talent and skills development sit at the heart of the Deloitte and AWS alliance partnership, and Deloitte has committed to building AWS Centers of Excellence across the African continent by investing in certifications and job creation opportunities, not only to help empower our clients’ most strategic transformations, but also to make a lasting impact in the communities in which we operate.

“Deloitte and AWS are deeply committed to fostering growth in Africa by investing in the region’s digital future and developing the skills of its youth. Our partnership focuses on innovating for impact by delivering transformative solutions that addresses unique local challenges, while empowering our client organizations and the next generation of leaders to thrive in an increasingly digital economy,” says Aasif Karachi, Director and Africa AWS Alliance Leader at Deloitte.

Accelerating Africa’s progress

At Deloitte, we live our purpose each day: to make an impact that matters. When asked to clarify Deloitte’s experiences in the local market: “We feel grateful to be selected as a trusted partner in Africa by CxOs to support them as they embrace the potential of the cloud. Our first-hand experience working across the continent since the launch of the AWS region in 2020 has been profound, but not without its challenges.

“Foreign exchange fluctuations, regulatory and data protection policy considerations and satellite connectivity reach are lagging behind and remain critical inhibitors for organizations to achieve cloud adoption at scale,” adds Aasif. Globally, up to 70 percent of technology leaders also view technical debt as a hindrance to cloud adoption, according to the latest Deloitte ‘Tech Trends 2024’ report.

Despite these constraints, Africa has the potential to leapfrog traditional legacy technologies. The past 18 months have seen a steady increase in local cloud adoption, with great success being achieved in critical sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, banking, education, mining and retail, with AI expected to significantly accelerate this adoption. Across the continent, public and private sector interest in AI has been growing rapidly, spurred in part by the capabilities of large language models like ChatGPT.

Africa currently counts over 2,400 AI companies, 40 percent of which were founded in the last five years. For African nations to sustain and amplify this growth trajectory, governments and the private sector must prioritize AI in their investments. This is essential not only for driving economic expansion but also for accelerating Africa’s progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, especially considering the recently adopted United Nations resolution on AI governance that aims to promote safe, secure and trustworthy AI systems.

AI adoption in Africa does not come without costs or risks. Generative AI and large language models ingest vast amounts of data, generating concerns around privacy, data security and copyright infringement.

Predictive AI models could upend traditional decision-making and raise ethical questions around biased and inaccurate data. Proponents of AI development in Africa face nascent AI regulations, a large data deficit and high capital and operating expenses. As we look to the future, there is a crucial role for Africa to play beyond just being a consumer of services, and the localization of this critical technology is essential for future growth and adoption.

Enabling business transformation

“Digital transformation is about using the power of modern technology to improve the competitiveness of our African economy; serving the interests of businesses and its citizens alike,” says Arun Babu, Consulting CEO at Deloitte Africa.

Deloitte brings a holistic approach to our clients’ business transformations covering strategy and value engineering, deep technical expertise, regulatory compliance, governance and tax, data analytics and cyber risk.

By embracing digital to drive business and societal impact, Deloitte has recognized the unique challenges faced by our client organizations. In partnership with AWS, Deloitte recently signed a strategic agreement with AWS in Africa to help companies unlock the possibilities of cloud and digital transformation through key focus areas:

• Digital transformation: Supporting transformation of core processes, applications, and skills to achieve outcomes like agility, innovation and cost optimization in the cloud.

• Cloud strategy and governance: Helping define cloud visions, road maps and governance models tailored to business objectives.

• Cloud architecture: Supporting cloud migrations by leveraging the AWS Cloud Platform to establish foundational security, connectivity and automation capabilities.

• Regulated industries: Providing specialized expertise in regulated domains like energy, ecommerce, insurance, banking, manufacturing, telecommunications, healthcare and the public sector to ensure compliance in the cloud.

• Global delivery network: Leveraging Deloitte’s ecosystem of 22+ Cloud Centers of Excellence, with 100,000+ practitioners across strategy, operations and technology, in combination with AWS Local Zones, to serve customers in Africa.

Deloitte’s understanding of industry business challenges, nuances and opportunities, combined with AWS innovation, forms a unique combination of global business transformation experience and market-leading technology.

Together, Deloitte and AWS help companies drive maximum value and impact with business solutions that build tomorrow’s innovations.