# The AI hospital is here. Plus: SA’s pothole crisis meets its match

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/bruce-whitfield-s-business-week-7413177/the-ai-hospital-is-here-plus-sa-s-pothole-crisis-meets-its-match
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/bruce-whitfield-s-business-week-7413177/the-ai-hospital-is-here-plus-sa-s-pothole-crisis-meets-its-match.md
Podcast: [Bruce Whitfield’s Business Week](https://stenobird.com/podcast/bruce-whitfield-s-business-week-7413177)
Published: 2026-05-28T14:44:03+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/news248/episodes/The-AI-hospital-is-here--Plus-SAs-pothole-crisis-meets-its-match-e3k152r
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/107370458/podcast/play/120672795/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-4-28%2F55db29d1-cf93-2566-039a-7553d56df892.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/bruce-whitfield-s-business-week-7413177/episodes/the-ai-hospital-is-here-plus-sa-s-pothole-crisis-meets-its-match
Duration seconds: 2017

## Resource

In this episode, Bruce chats with Netcare CEO Richard Friedland about how AI and digitisation are transforming healthcare. With savings now exceeding implementation costs, smartwatches are monitoring patients in real time, and algorithms detect sepsis long before symptoms appear. As Friedland puts it, the clinical AI revolution is already here. News24 Business editor Helena Wasserman unpacks new legislation on pay gap disclosure, Absa group CEO Kenny Fihla’s extraordinary talent raid on Standard Bank, and Pepkor’s bold move into banking with its new PlusB offering. Jaraad Hassim, founder of PatchPal, has a deceptively simple fix for South Africa’s pothole crisis: biodegradable mesh bags of cold-mix asphalt that can be dropped in, overlapped, and driven over. It works; municipalities are testing it. Now, the last remaining hurdle to clear is the law. Lastly, Jean Pierre Verster of Protea Capital Management compares Life Healthcare and Netcare, unpacks Pepkor’s banking ambitions, and weighs in on Pick n Pay. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec. To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24's Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00.

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