AI MAY FINALLY LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD ACROSS THE GENERATIONS

Artificial Intelligence has arrived the way Nairobi rains do—suddenly, loudly, and without asking whether you’ve hung your clothes outside. What used to sound like complicated sci-fi is now helping people draft emails, diagnose illnesses, run businesses, write code, design logos, farm smarter, and even argue politely with chatbots. Experts say AI’s capability doubles roughly every 5.7 months. By the time you finish this paragraph, it might already have taught itself a new trick.

Tucked inside this disruption is a rare opportunity. Kenya’s Gen Z and the fast-coming Gen Alpha may actually have the advantage for once. These are the same young Kenyans who can create a meme, record a TikTok, write a thread, and organise a protest—all before breakfast. They switch between apps faster than older generations switch between TV channels. In a world where curiosity and adaptability are the new currency, that’s a superpower.

These young people are meeting AI at the very beginning of their lives - not halfway through a career like millennials - and AI is not offering small gifts; it’s arriving bearing a full buffet of tools. With a basic smartphone and some data bundles, a young Kenyan can learn coding, design, writing, marketing, business strategy, and advanced science—all from home, often for free. You no longer need to know a cousin who knows a friend at a company. You just need curiosity and a charger.

AI tutors don’t get tired. AI assistants don’t charge consultancy fees. AI design tools don’t demand lunch breaks. A young person today can build an app before ever applying for an internship. They can draft business plans, create content that reaches millions, or start freelance work from their bedroom in Kisumu, Chuka, or Kayole. For the first time, Kenya’s youth can bypass every traditional gatekeeper.

This moment is also a mirror—and formal educational institutions won’t like what it reflects. If universities keep teaching as if the world is still analogue, they will soon be overtaken by teenagers in hoodies and crocs learning online, building real projects, and earning real money. The old bluff of “wait until you finish school to start your life”, is about to be called—loudly. When self-taught 19-year-olds start outpacing graduates, universities will either evolve or watch their relevance fade like chalk on a rainy day.

This doesn’t mean formal education is useless—it means it must reinvent itself urgently. Practical skills, creativity, entrepreneurship, and AI literacy must be placed at the centre. Otherwise, parents will start asking uncomfortable questions when their children say, “Mum, I just learned more from TikTok tutorials in one month than in university in one year.”

Meanwhile, young people must turn screen time into skill time. Endless scrolling won’t pay rent, but building, experimenting, and creating will. AI rewards those who are hungry to learn and are disciplined—not those who wait.

Older generations should also relax. No one expects them to become coders overnight, but ignoring AI completely is like insisting on using a fax machine in 2025. AI won’t replace you—unless you refuse to meet it halfway.

The exciting part is that two generations from now, the world will look nothing like it does today. Entire industries will have morphed, merged, or vanished. New fields we cannot imagine—synthetic biology consultants, digital-world architects, AI-ethics enforcers, memory-augmentation therapists—will exist. Jobs may be location-free, income may be digital-first, and creativity may become the main economic engine. The global economy will favour problem-solvers, creators, and lifelong learners—not degree collectors.

That is why Gen Z and Gen Alpha should not despair about the rate of unemployment today. The world they will inherit is still being built. The tough conditions of the present are not a permanent sentence; they are a transition phase. If they stay curious, keep learning, and embrace AI early, they will be the ones running the world that is coming—not just surviving in it.

Whether you are Gen X, Millennial, Gen Z or Alpha, this is exactly the moment to start engaging with AI, even in small ways, before the learning curve gets steeper. A little curiosity now can spare you a lot of frustration later. 

No one wants to look back and realise that the only thing standing between them and relevance was hesitation. The people who stay ahead will be the ones who try things out, make mistakes, and adjust as they go; and when the dust finally settles, you’ll be glad you started when the stakes were still low.