Last week in Davos, I sat in rooms where CEOs discussed how artificial intelligence and geopolitics will reshape global growth. All the while, my mind kept drifting back to classrooms and community halls in South Africa, across Africa and the diaspora.
Behind every conversation about “visions of 2050” and “the next three billion” are young people navigating fragile transitions into work and entrepreneurship right now.
I travelled to Davos not just to listen, but to ask a simple question: what do these big conversations on AI, leadership and globalisation mean for a first-time entrepreneur in Johannesburg, Kigali or Charlotte in the US – and for the educators and mentors walking alongside them,
My Davos visit unfolded between main-stage plenaries, education gatherings on a snowy hilltop, and human side-events like the Female Quotient Lounge and a women’s dinner that brought together more than 100 Davos Women.
A quiet visual
In those spaces, it was striking how quickly formal titles fell away; I met a young woman at the FQ Lounge who, in a season when I have been reflecting on mentoring relationships, I realised could be a mentor to me. We discovered a shared connection that made the global suddenly feel local.
Walking down the Promenade, country and regional ‘houses’ lined the street – Nigeria House, Brazil House and others – each broadcasting a carefully curated story about its place in the future world economy.
Inside, friends and colleagues worked behind the scenes to host African heads of state, investors and ecosystem builders, reminding me that every panel depends on people who understand logistics, culture and community.
Sponsor boards listed global banks, consultancies, tech companies and media organisations, a quiet visual of who pays to shape the agenda that ultimately filters down to policy shifts and corporate strategies.
Grounding spaces
One of the most grounding spaces for me was the inaugural Education House, where education leaders from around the world wrestled with what AI means for youth, schools and teachers.
A speaker from a global youth organisation described their “piece of the puzzle” as building self-efficacy – the belief that young people can own their economic success so that AI is not something that just happens to them.
He reminded us that whether you are in Africa, the Americas or Europe, young people need to feel that they are in control of technology, not passive subjects of it.
Another speaker, advising on AI for an international body representing educators, warned that after years of studying AI he expects significant job disruption and a decline in automatic assumptions about human exceptionalism.
Three bottlenecks
In a world “saturated by artificial intelligence”, he argued that three bottlenecks will define human advantage: social-emotional skills (the art of real conversation and collaboration), creativity (nurtured through free play and time in nature) and fine-motor, hands-on activities like handwriting and crafts that develop billions of neural connections.
A government minister in the room added a stark economic reminder: for every dollar invested in education, his country sees a return of many times that amount to the wider economy and society.
For youth and educators in South Africa, across Africa and beyond, these insights translate into urgent, practical questions.
How are we protecting time for conversation, creativity and embodied learning in systems under pressure to “digitise everything”? How do we design entrepreneurship and leadership programmes that treat self-efficacy and mental wellbeing as core infrastructure rather than optional add-ons?
From abstract to concrete
In the CEO rooms, AI moved from the abstract to a concrete operational challenge. At a session hosted by Semafor, one executive noted that only a few thousand highly skilled people worldwide currently have the capabilities to assemble advanced AI systems on site for large organisations, highlighting how concentrated this expertise remains.
Another framed AI’s main use case as digitising organisational decision-making – from military contexts to Fortune 500 companies and governments -arguing that once AI works reliably in those environments, demand for it becomes effectively infinite and debates about return on investment will fade within a couple of years.
For small and medium enterprises, especially in African markets, this forces a reframing. The question is no longer “Should I use AI?” but “Which decisions in my business do I want to make more transparent, data-informed and eventually AI-augmented?”
A local manufacturer might start by documenting how they qualify customers and set payment terms; a social enterprise might map how it selects youth for programmes or evaluates community partners. By turning messy, tacit choices into visible decision paths, entrepreneurs make themselves ready for accessible AI tools without waiting for a rare specialist to appear.
The geopolitical backdrop
All these conversations unfolded against a charged geopolitical backdrop. In hallway chatter and on-stage questions, you could feel how closely people were watching major speeches -from Mark Carney’s remarks that rippled through financial and policy circles, to President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated appearance that dominated CEO questions at side events.
The oscillation between climate and inclusion commitments on one day and contrasting rhetoric the next was a live illustration of the fractured world order young people are inheriting.
For youth and SMEs, this means building careers and ventures amid policy volatility, supply chain shocks and shifting alliances that they did not choose. For educators and ecosystem builders, it raises the bar on the kind of leadership capabilities we need to nurture: the ability to read political risk, to collaborate across difference and to hold long-term purpose in short-term turbulence.
In my own work with Champs for Change and entrepreneurship education programmes, I see young Africans already practising this – navigating regulatory uncertainty and infrastructure gaps while still imagining new futures in sports, business and social innovation.
Extending three invitations
Coming home from Davos, I would like to extend three invitations to the communities I serve – young people, entrepreneurs and educators across Africa, North America and the wider diaspora.
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Start with one decision, not the whole technology
Instead of asking “How do I adopt AI?”, identify a single recurring decision in your business or classroom – who gets into your programme, how you set prices, which customers you follow up with. Document how you currently make that decision, what data you use and what biases might be baked in, then explore how AI tools could support, not replace, your judgment over time.
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Protect and practise human bottleneck skills
In your teams, communities and classrooms, deliberately design for conversation, feedback, creativity and hands-on work, even when digital options seem more efficient. This might look like structured peer feedback circles for youth entrepreneurs, play-based sessions in leadership programmes, or – as suggested at Education House – reintroducing handwriting and craft elements into curricula that have become heavily screen-based.
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Build networks that mirror the best of Davos, locally
The warmth of spaces like the FQ Lounge and 100 Davos Women came from how easily a newcomer could find a seat, a story and a possible mentor. We can recreate that spirit in Johannesburg, Lagos, Montreal or Charlotte by hosting small, themed gatherings where first-timers are paired with “connectors”, and where entrepreneurs, students and educators are invited to share both what excites them and what scares them about AI and an uncertain decade.
As I think back to the hug I exchanged with a colleague in a quiet hallway, or the laughter around tables where African women were enjoying a shared meal, I am reminded that the future of work, entrepreneurship and leadership will be decided as much in these grounded relationships as in any grand declaration from a global stage.
If we can translate the best of what we heard in Davos into concrete practices in our classrooms, SMEs and communities, then young people will not just survive an AI‑saturated, geopolitically fractured world; they will help remake it.
Dr Memuna Williams is founder and CEO of Empowering Sustainable Change and a specialist at bridging the gap between education, skills development and entrepreneurship.
