Who Gets Left Behind in the AI Economy and What Needs to Change

There is a version of the AI future that looks transformative. In this version, AI unlocks access to knowledge and opportunity at a scale which was previously impossible. Businesses can scale faster by automating repetitive tasks and job roles that previously required large teams can now be handled by a single person equipped with the right AI tools. This version is real and it is already unfolding indifferent parts of the world.

However, there is another version unfolding at the same time. This version is one where the people who are most in need of economic opportunities are the least equipped to access it, which means the gap between those who benefit from AI and those who are displaced by it keeps widening.

And so, the question has moved from whether AI will transform the economy to who gets to be part of that transformation.

The People Most at Risk Are Not Who You Think

The common narrative frames AI displacement as a white-collar problem. Lawyers, accountants, and analysts whose cognitive work can now be automated. While that is partly true, the more immediate and less discussed risk remains the low-income workers in the informal economy, young people without post-secondary education and women in underserved communities, who are already navigating labor markets with fewer protections and fallbacks.

For these groups, the threat is both job displacement and invisibility, especially as the current AI systems are trained largely on data that does not reflect their languages, their needs, or their economic realities.

Three Gaps That Have to Close

• Skills Gap

A young woman in a peri-urban community who has never been introduced to digital tools, let alone AI tools, cannot compete for roles that now require baseline digital fluency. Capacity building and structured skill development programs that reach people outside of tech hubs and urban centers are what close this gap. And it brings us closer to an inclusive AI economy.

• Data Gap

AI systems are trained on data and most of that data comes from a different part of the world. When a hiring algorithm or a health screening system has never been trained on data that reflects a particular community, it produces results that do not serve that community well. Sometimes, it actively disadvantages them. Closing this gap means investing in localized data collection, local language AI development, and participatory design processes that include the underserved communities these tools are meant to serve.

• Policy Gap

Labor market regulations, education curricula, and social protection systems were not designed for an economy where a significant share of tasks can be automated, which means governments are still developing the frameworks needed to manage this AI transition equitably. Closing this gap may require reskilling programs and education systems that are tied to real employment pathways and protections for workers in sectors where restructuring is already underway.

More importantly, inclusion in the AI economy is not just about access to a chatbot; it is about whether the systems shaping hiring, access to decent healthcare and public services reflect the full realities of people in underserved communities. It is also about whether the people building these systems look like the world they are building for.

What an Inclusive AI Economy Looks Like in Practice

This is exactly the gap that Tech4Dev's BDEI Community Champion Program is working to address. Through the program, selected young people across Nigeria will go through a structured four-week capacity development journey covering digital literacy, introductory AI concepts, leadership, and community facilitation. From there, each Champion goes on to empower 80 to 100 individuals in their community, expanding the reach of foundational digital and AI literacy to people who may otherwise have no access to it.

Applications for the current cohort are open. If you are between 18 and 35 and want to be part of building a more inclusive digital future from the ground up, you can learn more and apply here: https://bit.ly/BDEIChampions.