Obsidian Systems’ Smarter.tech ’26 convened enterprise technology leaders online to discuss what “working smarter” really means for organizations juggling complex infrastructure, stretched teams and the pressure to adopt AI responsibly.
Context emerges as the key to effective AI adoption
Throughout the event, participants emphasized that context is the deciding factor for technology to be useful. Solutions must fit the environment in which people operate, respect existing controls and give teams a practical way to manage them.
CEO Muggie van Staden opened the session by urging attendees to engage across the programme so they could leave with a clearer view of what smarter technology looks like in practice. “Customers are not asking for more technology in isolation. They want to know how it will fit into their environment and how it can be governed. They also need confidence that their teams can operate and support it reliably,” he said.
Atlassian’s plenary illustrated why context matters for enterprise AI. Its roadmap for Rovo and the Teamwork Graph focuses on connecting organisational knowledge with work already underway in Jira, Confluence and other linked systems. The approach gives AI agents access to relevant information while keeping people involved in assigning, reviewing and completing tasks.
Red Hat’s Chris Mulder added another layer, describing the difficulty of supporting legacy workloads alongside containers and emerging AI platforms, often without larger teams or budgets. He advocated a consistent operating model based on open platforms, with tighter control over where workloads run and how data is used.
Practical demonstrations highlighted integration challenges
Obsidian’s own sessions showed how Red Hat Satellite and Ansible can replace fragmented Linux server management with a managed operating model that covers deployment, patching and reporting. The significance lay less in the tools themselves than in the experience required to integrate them and the discipline needed to maintain them.
For South African organisations, the problem is familiar: modernising against legacy estates, skills constraints, rising security exposure and unpredictable technology costs. Adding a platform without first settling governance and support only adds a layer of complexity.
Related: South Africa develops smart payment systems
Van Staden stressed that smarter technology should reduce the burden on people rather than give them another system to manage. “That requires technical depth and strong partnerships, supported by an understanding of the customer’s operating reality,” he added.
Enterprises must evaluate not just the capabilities of a new AI tool but also how it will interface with existing processes, who will remain accountable, and what training will be needed to keep operations smooth. The event highlighted that progress will not come from chasing every new capability, but from better choices about how technology connects and how the environment can be improved over time.
For front‑line teams, the shift toward context‑aware solutions could mean fewer emergency patches and more predictable maintenance windows.
Vendors who can demonstrate clear integration pathways may gain a competitive edge as organisations prioritize stability over novelty.
Obsidian Systems, founded in 1995 as a modest services provider, has expanded through partnerships with Autumn Leaf and RadixTrie. The company now offers open‑source software solutions across retail, subscription services, managed‑services support and hybrid IT consulting.
The three subsidiaries bring vendor‑certified products, local consulting, development, support and training, as well as innovative offerings built on the latest open technology to the South African market. Obsidian is a level 1 B‑BBEE contributor and aims to help teams get their code to the right platforms and data.
Contact information includes a local phone line (0860 4 LINUX) and an international number (+27 11 795 0200), with offices located in Randpark Ridge, South Africa.
