Business

American, British and Australian employers looking for South Africans with a specific skillset

Luke Fraser

 ·25 Aug 2026

South Africa is among the top countries in the world for outsourcing, specifically for AI skills, with employers from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia on the hunt for workers.

Ataraxis’ 2026 Global Outsourcing AI Readiness Index revealed the countries with the best AI adoption (30% of the score), workforce literacy (30%), enterprise readiness (25%), and education pipeline (15%).

South Africa was ranked the eighth-best country in the world, and the best in Africa, with an overall score of 66.5. The top spot went to India, with Brazil and Malaysia completing the top three.

Ataraxis noted that South Africa is the only African country with enterprise AI adoption above 50.

South Africa’s population AI adoption received a score of 78, while its AI workforce AI literacy received a score of 63.

“Corporate AI deployment in Africa essentially exists in one country. South Africa clears the global midpoint on every sub-index,” said Ataraxis.

South Africa is also one of the few outsourcing destinations in the Index where all four sub-indices score above 50, while most African and South Asian destinations have one sub-index in the bottom tier.

However, South Africa’s education pipeline shows a relative gap, ranking 13th among the top 15 outsourcing destinations on the AI education pipeline, with a score of 53.

“Closing this gap will determine whether South Africa’s continental AI leadership is sustained over the next decade,” said Ataraxis.

The study also revealed the largest outsourcing buyer markets, the majority of which are English-speaking.

The United States holds the top spot, accounting for 36% of the world’s estimated business process outsourcing (BPO) spend.

The United States is followed in order by the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, Canada and then Japan.

Not the first time

This is not the first time South Africa has featured in an Ataraxis index; it has previously ranked in the top five in the Global Outsourcing Talent Index since the start of the year.

South Africa was ranked number 5 globally on the Global Outsourcing Talent Index, which measures overall outsourcing competitiveness across 193 UN-recognised countries.

The Global Outsourcing Talent Index evaluates countries along five key factors that influence global hiring.

This includes labour cost (52.5%), English proficiency (20%), talent availability (17.5%), digital infrastructure (5%), and business, legal, and political stability (5%).

In this ranking, South Africa comes fifth overall, with a score of 83.45. The country sits behind the Philippines, Malaysia, India and Chile.

South Africa scores a perfect 100 for English proficiency, while its labour cost sits at 88. However, the country’s digital infrastructure sits at a mere 40 points.