MORGAN GODDARD | Squealer spouts AI doublespeak in the boardroom

In George Orwell’s Animal Farm Sundays were results days. Squealer, a silver-tongued pig, would announce from his clipboard of statistics to the gathered animals that, while their rations felt smaller and the workload heavier, production was actually up 200%. The animals, baffled but without the data to argue, had no choice but to accept the line and continue as before.

Today, Squealer has slid from the farmyard to the boardroom and exchanged his clipboard for a sleek slide deck. Nowhere is his presence more detectable than in corporate artificial intelligence (AI) doublespeak. From Johannesburg to Sydney to Mumbai to New York, we are facing a moment of huge disconnect between what we’re told and what we’re experiencing.

Earlier this year Reuters reported that major hyperscalers Amazon, Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft are projected to spend more than $650bn on AI capex in 2026. Enterprise adoption has surged globally, and more than 70% of organisations now regularly use generative AI.

Task-level productivity is soaring — emails are written faster, lines of code are generated virtually instantly, and customer tickets are closed with efficiency — but a picture is emerging that indicates financial performance is not keeping pace.

If you are able to look at the data behind these pronouncements you will confront a different reality. Most of these organisations report little or no measurable enterprise-level impact on their earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit).

When a productivity gap like this occurs, a natural corporate reflex is triggered. If financial metrics do not move, or aren’t moving fast enough, the impulse is to shift the focus of reporting from the bottom line to operational adoption metrics. And while insights on engagement scores, user licences and so-called “AI-touched workflows” are useful, they are simply not telling the true story.

For South African boards and shareholders this global productivity gap is even deeper when our unique structural challenges are accounted for. If you have been to a single AI conference in Johannesburg, Cape Town or Stellenbosch this year, you will have heard the same story: South Africa is Africa’s AI leader.

Our AI adoption rate climbed from 21.1% in the second half of 2025 to 23.1% in the first quarter of 2026, according to Microsoft’s Global AI Diffusion report, well ahead of Nigeria and Kenya. Some 82% of African businesses are piloting AI, 59% of African businesses plan to spend more than $50m on AI in 2026. South Africa ranks fourth globally in public sector adoption.

It is, by every metric the decks want to show, a triumph. But now look at the labour data. According to Stats SA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (May 12), the national unemployment rate stood at 32.7% in the first quarter on the narrow definition, and a crisis-tipping 43.7% on the expanded definition. Youth unemployment reached 45.8% among people aged 15–34, and even graduates face an unemployment rate rising to 12.2%.

Both data sets are accurate but they present two different versions of the same terrain. The conference deck focuses entirely on technological progression, while the economic data reflects a deep underutilisation of human capital and a ticking time bomb that has far surpassed its ignition date.

I don’t believe this disconnect is driven by malice but it is certainly an organisational design flaw. Yes, digital transformation dashboards are naturally designed to justify, explain and validate the strategies they monitor. But if boards and shareholders want to ensure that capex translates into sustainable economic value we must undergo a vital shift from mere recipients of the digital updates that are on transmit into active, strategic interrogators.

Whether you’re a nonexecutive director, exco member or shareholder, your starting point should be these critical questions:

• Are we measuring task efficiency or profit and loss (P&L) optimisation? Minutes saved per employee are meaningless if the surplus time is absorbed by operational slack. Today’s executive teams must be able to demonstrate how task-level efficiency actively moves the Ebit line or reduces core operating costs
• Are we democratising capability or restricting it? Innovation accelerates when tools are placed in the hands of those closest to the execution. If access to advanced AI capabilities is restricted only to senior leadership while junior staff skills development budgets are shrunk or cut, business risks stifling the next generation of leadership. If we are serious about growing our economy and creating sustainable long-term value, upskilling our young and low-skilled workers cannot be cut.
• Does our AI roadmap create capacity for growth? The pace of change that AI and new technologies have inflicted can mean business defaults to using AI as a mechanism to cut costs and buy time until it can be better understood and deployed. But right now AI can be an engine to scale operations, enter new markets and unlock fresh revenue streams that can absorb and upskill South African youth, if you can ask the right questions and define the right direction.
• Are we investing in repeatable solutions? Capital allocation must move away from generic, multivendor “spray and pray” experiments and pilots and rather focus on building scalable, compliant and secure digital architecture that creates recurring long-term value in a way that matters for your business and its stakeholders.

Orwell’s final critique left us with the conclusion that while all animals are equal, some are more equal than others. In business today this equality can still be understood in relation to who has the power to determine which metrics are highlighted and which are left out of the report.

We have the infrastructure, entrepreneurial spirit and tech-hungry youth necessary to lead the continent’s digital economy. But true leadership will require an alignment of the promise of technology and AI investments with the reality of South Africa’s economic and employment crisis.

In the end, Orwell’s tale reminds us that true progress is measured not just by what we’re told, but by the reality we create. Let’s ensure our metrics reflect the world we want to build, one where both technology and opportunity uplift everyone.

• Goddard is a partner and leads software development at technology and management consultancy iqbusiness.