Authors - More Ickson Manda Abstract - The rapid advancement of digital technologies and artificial intelligence has created significant opportunities and challenges for developing countries such as South Africa. To harness these opportunities and mitigate associated risks, South Africa must adopt strategic policy and investment interventions that promote innovation, strengthen digital capabilities, and support inclusive and sustainable socio-economic growth. Technological developments such as Artificial Intelligence, robotics, internet of things and cloud-based technologies have disrupted every sector. Concerns around ethics, sovereignty, security, privacy, skills, affordability, governance and infrastructure have hindered developing countries from fully leveraging the benefits of AI. The purpose of this paper is therefore to identify key pillars for building an inclusive digital society in South Africa in the age of Artificial Intelligence where citizens can fully access and benefit from using digital services. The study found that developing an inclusive digital society, digital leadership, digital infrastructure development, embracing new and emerging technologies, digital policy and governance and digital resilience are key pillars of an inclusive digital society.
