Hyundai Automotive South Africa is investing in AI-powered skills and digital tools to help employees adapt to the rapidly changing future of work and mobility.
Speaking at the “Future is Human AI Conference” held in Bryanston, Johan Nel, Sales Director at Hyundai Automotive South Africa said the company is placing employees at the centre of its technology strategy as artificial intelligence becomes more integrated into business and customer engagement.
He further shared with the audience Hyundai Automotive South Africa’s recent commercial success, following the nationwide integration of HANA, its proprietary AI-powered customer engagement platform.
“At Hyundai Automotive South Africa, we believe innovation should empower people, not replace them. The future workplace will require employees who are confident working alongside AI technologies.”
Since its deployment twelve months ago, HANA has successfully processed over 70,000 online chats, Increased digital dealer sales through this channel by 280%. Notably, 40,000 interactions were explicitly vehicle-related and successfully converted one in every three chats into sales leads.
“HANA ensures we are permanently agile and accessible,” he added. “With half of our consumer base engaging after standard business hours, the platform delivers convenient, responsive and always-on support when customers need it most. Our strategy focused on starting small and scaling purposefully.
The operational journey required absolute resilience, as echoed by Stanley Anderson, CEO of Hyundai Automotive South Africa.
“It was not always smooth sailing and we encountered initial fluctuations where projected value dipped. However, instead of abandoning the initiative, our collective team paused, extracted critical operational insights and optimized the system.”
The two-day conference brought together executives and technology leaders to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on businesses and customer engagement across South Africa’s economy.
