Beyond Now, a fast-growing AI ecosystem orchestration and digital platform provider, announced that its Digital Marketplace will serve as the core infrastructure for Business AI, a South African startup on a mission to make AI trusted, accurate, and accessible for all businesses.
Business AI, a subsidiary of Mustek, one of South Africa’s leading technology suppliers, developed a clear, repeatable framework for enterprise AI implementation, underpinned by a closed marketplace, designed for large enterprises to develop, trial and share successful AI solutions.
Since its establishment in August, Business AI – under the leadership of AI veteran Rudi Dreyer – has attracted the support of 16 of the largest enterprises in South Africa, including Woolworths, Bidvest and Stefanutti Stocks.
Against the backdrop of increasing concern around return on investment from enterprise AI, with only 5% of AI implementation proving successful, Business AI’s approach is built on three main principles:
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A proven framework for successful AI deployments – A vendor agnostic environment, enabling enterprise to choose their preferred suppliers and large language models without a vendor lock-in -
An ecosystem of AI relevant services, use cases and hardware – This model means Business AI customers are not tied to any single platform or technology vendor. The company’s framework defines how AI should be deployed responsibly, allowing organizations to make informed choices while ensuring data security, compliance, and long-term relevance. -
Through Beyond Now’s Digital Marketplace, Business AI will orchestrate, monetize, and manage co-development and co-selling of AI solutions within a governed, automated ecosystem. The partnership allows Business AI to bring together tier one technology providers and trusted partners to build, bundle, and scale AI products that meet the company’s responsible AI standards.
Rudi Dreyer, CEO of Business AI
We’ve all read reports of poor return on enterprise AI investments in so-called developed markets. Too many projects are failing due to poor implementation, lack of governance or overreliance on a single model or vendor. Through Business AI, we have the opportunity to avoid these failures through the unique framework – to leapfrog what hasn’t worked elsewhere and take a more collaborative, independent approach to AI adoption. With Beyond Now’s Digital Marketplace, we’re able to create a truly agnostic and independent AI ecosystem to build trusted, enterprise-grade AI tools and avoid vendor lock in.
Hein Engelbrecht, CEO of Mustek
Enterprise AI should deliver real business outcomes – not just experiments. Through Business AI, Mustek is helping our customers move from proof-of-concept to scalable, results-driven implementations. Partnering with Beyond Now accelerates this mission by providing a flexible, vendor-agnostic platform to deploy proven AI solutions at scale.
Angus Ward, CEO of Beyond Now
Business AI is pioneering a model for responsible AI adoption that empowers customers and partners alike. By choosing our digital marketplace, Business AI is creating a vibrant ecosystem where innovation thrives, trust is preserved, and businesses can invest and grow confidently in the age of AI, and we can offer Beyond Customer access to proven AI framework for implantation and proven AI use cases.
