Challenger Roots South Africa: Navigating the agentic era

We recently brought together senior leaders for Challenger Roots South Africa, an invitation-only conference designed to explore the opportunities and challenges shaping the future of business.

Building on the success of our established series in the UK, the South African edition brought together executives for a day of candid discussion, practical insight and peer-to-peer learning focused on one of the most significant shifts facing organizations today: the rise of AI.

Leaders across industries and markets are grappling with many of the same questions. How do organizations move beyond AI experimentation? What does successful implementation look like? And how can businesses translate emerging technologies into lasting competitive advantage?

The event opened with a keynote from Elixirr Partner Adam Hofmann, The 95% Paradox: Redesigning for the Agentic Era. Combining an external market perspective with live demonstrations of frontier AI capabilities, Adam explored why the vast majority of AI initiatives fail to deliver meaningful impact. The session examined the organizational, operational and leadership changes required for businesses to succeed in the agentic era.

This was followed by a panel discussion hosted by Elixirr Partner Em Caerlewy-Smith, featuring:

Khomotso Molabe, Group CIO, Standard Bank
Celiwe Ross, Group Chief Human Capital and Corporate Affairs Officer, Old Mutual
Cheslyn Jacobs, CEO, TymeBank

The panel shared practical perspectives on leading transformation, embedding AI within organizations and balancing technological change with human capability.
In the afternoon, attendees participated in a series of interactive breakout sessions, providing the opportunity to explore key themes in greater depth and exchange experiences with peers. Topics included:

Gen Z perspectives on the future of work
Vibe coding and Agentic AI
Human transformation in the age of AI

The day concluded with a keynote from entrepreneur, author and fibertime founder Alan Knott-Craig, before guests gathered for an evening reception, continuing conversations over food, wine and networking.

We know meaningful progress happens when leaders come together to share challenges, test ideas and learn from one another. Challenger Roots is an opportunity to create those conversations, bringing together ambitious organizations to explore the changes reshaping business and the actions required to stay ahead.