The Silent Disruption of Upskilling—and How Niyo Labs Is Leading the Human-Centric AI Revolution
For years, the conversation in learning and development has centered on access. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), bootcamps, and micro-credentials democratised education globally. Although we saw this democratisation, we saw that learning was still not designed for the evolving human in mind. For example, for MOOCs, the completion rates are around 5-15% , micro-credentials focused on certificates and bootcamps although are fantastic accelerators, don’t give the full transformation for humans to evolve with technological revolutions. But today, an even deeper shift has arrived - one that’s so swift, it’s almost invisible. Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t just at the edge of the future: it’s rewriting the present way we learn and upskill and reskill.
AI Is Accelerating the Pace of Work—and Humans Are Struggling to Keep Up
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, businesses expect that by 2030, 86% of organizations will be transformed by AI and other information-processing technologies (Sustainability Magazine). This transformation is nothing short of seismic: the WEF projects 170 million new jobs will be created globally, even as 92 million existing roles could be displaced (Sustainability Magazine, AI Magazine).
Further, nearly 40% of workers’ core skills are expected to change or vanish by 2030 (World Economic Forum). Even amid this upheaval, just 50% of workers have engaged in long-term learning strategies, up from 41% in 2023 an encouraging but insufficient response to the accelerating rate of change (World Economic Forum).
This tsunami of change is already reshaping job roles. Today, people are more than twice as likely to acquire AI skills than in 2018 in some fields such as recruiting or healthcare, that number is up nearly sevenfold (World Economic Forum).
Yet the pace remains too slow. A staggering 40% of executives believe their workforce will need to reskill within the next three years due to AI or automation (World Economic Forum). Moreover, 75% of organizations are expected to integrate AI tools into training by 2025, but 67% of executives cite insufficient AI expertise as the top barrier (Soda Magazine).
The result of this leads a silent disruption. We’re no longer just struggling to keep access equitable and now we’re scrambling to keep humanity relevant.
The Unequal Impact of the AI Skills Gap
While AI is reshaping industries worldwide, underrepresented groups - women, global majority groups and young people in africa face a triple disadvantage:
Lower baseline access to digital and AI skills
According to the WEF, women represent just 29% of STEM workers globally. In AI specifically, female participation is even lower hovering around 22%.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, less than 40% of schools have internet access, which means millions of young people start with a systemic digital deficit.
Greater vulnerability to automation
Jobs disproportionately held by women (e.g., clerical, customer support, routine admin) are also among the most automatable.
The ILO has warned that up to 80% of female employment in some regions is at high risk of AI automation.
Structural barriers to reskilling
Underrepresented workers are more likely to face financial, cultural, or geographic barriers to ongoing training.
Even when training is available, bias in AI systems and lack of inclusive curriculum design can limit accessibility and relevance.
Without intentional intervention, AI could deepen the digital divide, reinforcing systemic inequalities in work, pay, and opportunity.
The Silent Disruption No One Is Talking About
The WEF notes that only 50% of workers today engage in proactive, long-term learning. For underrepresented groups, that number is even lower. Meanwhile, the pace of AI skills acquisition has doubled since 2018, meaning early adopters (often already privileged) are pulling further ahead.
This is the silent disruption:
Knowledge inequality grows faster than knowledge itself.
Access gaps compound into opportunity gaps.
The very groups who could benefit most from economic mobility are at risk of being locked out.
Niyo Labs: Building Human-First Upskilling in the Age of AI
At Niyo Labs, we believe humans especially those from underrepresented groups shouldn’t just survive the AI revolution but they must thrive within it. This mission has taken a new level of urgency. That conviction guided our recent AI Agents Webinar, where almost 80 professionals gathered not to debate theory ( although we did a bit of that at the end) , but to build their own AI agents.
During this intimate session, we heard and learned three powerful insights:
Learners are anxious, not about AI itself, but about being left behind by its pace.
Business leaders are intrigued but uncertain how to integrate AI without losing human nuance and therefore built their first AI agents
Creatives see opportunity in AI not competition as when AI is positioned as a co-creator, not a replacer.
That’s where we aim to intervene. Niyo Labs is weaving AI into learning as an evolving companion and co-pilot to do the tasks that should be left with machines so that humans do what we do best, thrive in intuituve skills and skills that boost human connection . We’re designing programs that let people practice with, question, and co-create with AI agents, building real-time fluency rather than theoretical knowledge.
This is why our approach matters:
Real-time applied AI learning: Not theory, but hands-on practice with AI tools.
Inclusive design: Curriculum built with women, the global majority, and African learners in mind.
AI fluency plus human strengths: Creativity, empathy, leadership, and resilience alongside AI literacy.
The Stakes Couldn’t Be Higher
If underrepresented groups are left out of AI upskilling, the inequalities of the past will be multiplied in the future. But if they are equipped, they stand to benefit most:
Women can transition into high-growth digital roles, narrowing gender gaps in pay and leadership.
African youth the fastest-growing working-age population in the world can leapfrog industrial stages and directly participate in the digital economy.
Minorities can harness AI to build businesses, reshape industries, and rewrite narratives.
As the WEF itself stresses, “AI will not replace people but people who use AI will replace those who don’t.” The question is: who gets the chance to learn?
Why This Matters—Backed by Insights and Evidence
Let’s revisit the data:
The WEF’s projections show huge job churn both risk and opportunity making upskilling not optional, but existential (Sustainability Magazine, AI Magazine).
Skill volatility is high: nearly 40% of our core capabilities will be disrupted by 2030 (World Economic Forum).
Upskilling uptake is still slow. Only half of workers are engaging in proactive learning even though employers expect mass reskilling (World Economic Forum).
AI literacy is still nascent, with an explosion of interest but persistent barriers across sectors (World Economic Forum, Soda Magazine).
But here’s where optimism lies: Human skills remain central. The WEF emphasises that alongside AI literacy traits like creativity, flexibility, resilience, and lifelong learning are rising in importance (World Economic Forum).
This is the arena where Niyo Labs plays: teaching AI literacy within a myriad of technical and professional high impact skills , knitting together AI capability and human strengths. We’re reframing upskilling as a practice of co-evolution to ensure people especially women do not have to play catch-up
What’s Next? Niyo Labs’ Human-First Roadmap
Micro-moment learning with AI agents: Short, interactive modules where learners can learn with a friend or learn with AI in real-time, applying and building real projects and not just memorising to pass an exam for a certificate.
Soft-skill augmentation: Embedding creativity, empathy, critical thinking alongside AI tools because humans should define purpose, not AI, and that’s why programmes like the shebuilds programme in our platform make so much of a difference.
Feedback loop building: Encouraging learners to share reflections and questions, helping us adapt course design to real needs.
Scaling with intention: Building pathways online, workplace, community that reach beyond the early adopters to diverse populations in a gamified manner where learners earn points as they take on a practical learning journey
Closing Thoughts
The world may be talking about AI, but no one’s talking enough about how humans keep pace. The silent disruption isn’t coming it’s here.
At Niyo Labs, we’re committed to making sure that people don’t just learn about AI they learn with AI, at the speed of change, on their own terms. The AI revolution isn’t one to fear, but one to co-author.
If you would like to move from watching the revoution, join Niyo Labs, the best community learning platform that transforms your career and building journey.
