--- title: "Investec’s contrarian AI bet: people over machines" url: https://daily.dev/posts/investec-s-contrarian-ai-bet-people-over-machines-c0xmzungf source_url: https://techcentral.co.za/investecs-contrarian-ai-bet-people-over-machines/281444 type: article source: "TechCentral" published: 2026-05-18T12:20:09.425Z updated: 2026-05-18T12:20:33.168Z tags: ["ai", "fintech", "banking"] reading_time: 4 upvotes: 0 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Investec’s contrarian AI bet: people over machines **[TechCentral](https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary South African banks are diverging sharply on AI strategy. Investec CIO Graeme Lockley insists the private bank remains 'human-first,' using technology only to handle repetitive tasks so staff can focus on client relationships. He warns against treating AI as a decision-maker and urges maintaining critical thinking. In contrast, Discovery Bank has launched Vitality AI as a core growth pillar (absorbing a R155-million operating loss), while Capitec has deployed AI tools to nearly 5,000 employees and an agentic credit processing system that blocked over 131,000 fraudulent beneficiaries and prevented R673-million in potential losses. Despite the strategic differences, none of the major banks frames AI as a headcount-reduction tool. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Investec deploying AI tools to every employee](https://daily.dev/posts/investec-deploying-ai-tools-to-every-employee-xhhot6qzs) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Capitec bets big on AI – and keeps hiring](https://daily.dev/posts/capitec-bets-big-on-ai-and-keeps-hiring-yybqhdddm) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [SA banks race to scale AI and cloud as challenger threat intensifies](https://daily.dev/posts/sa-banks-race-to-scale-ai-and-cloud-as-challenger-threat-intensifies-smudglei8) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#fintech](https://daily.dev/tags/fintech), [#banking](https://daily.dev/tags/banking) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/investec-s-contrarian-ai-bet-people-over-machines-c0xmzungf)