BrighterMonday Kenya Launches Landmark Report on Youth Skills and the AI Revolution Shaping the Future of Work.

BrighterMonday Kenya Launches Landmark Report on Youth Skills and the AI Revolution Shaping the Future of Work.

From left: Nancy Chebet from the State Department of Gender, Brian Mulama, Nairobi County Executive Committee Member for Talent, Skills Development and Care, and BrighterMonday Kenya Managing Director, Sarah Ndegwa, display the Skills Gap and Gender Analysis Report 2025, which highlights key insights into Kenya’s changing job market, emerging skills demand and the state of workforce inclusion.

By Jeff Oyugi

Nairobi - November 6, 2025.

BrighterMonday Kenya has unveiled a comprehensive report exploring the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), youth employability and the evolving job market, calling for urgent collaboration between government, academia and the private sector to bridge the growing skills gap among Kenya's young workforce.

Speaking during the launch event in Nairobi, Sarah Ndegwa, Managing Director of BrighterMonday Kenya, said the findings underscore the pressing need to align Kenya's education and training systems with the changing world of work, particularly as AI and digital technologies transform traditional employment landscapes.

"Earlier this year, we produced a report on AI and Talent Insights, which was our first step into understanding the dynamics between talent and opportunity in today's market," Ms. Ndegwa said. "The truth is, the AI tsunami has not yet hit us, but it will. The real question is, how do we prepare to harness the dividends of the next three to five years before it does?”

Sarah noted that while AI's impact has been most pronounced in white-collar professions, the ongoing discussion must extend to pink and blue collar sectors, which employ the majority of Kenyan youth. These jobs, she added, remain "largely AI-resistant," requiring digital literacy but retaining a human element that cannot be easily replaced by automation.

Since its founding in 2006, BrighterMonday Kenya has evolved from being a digital job marketplace into a research-driven partner for organizations seeking talent solutions. Through collaborations such as the Genkazi Program, launched earlier this year in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, the company has focused on equipping youth with critical soft skills and career-readiness training, Genkazi offers micro-learning modules, interview simulations and even an AI-powered career tool that helps users craft CVs, prepare for interviews and learn negotiation skills. Yet, Ndegwa said, research feedback revealed that the challenge goes deeper than employability training.

"We assumed the main problem was that graduates didn't know how to package themselves for the job market," she explained. "But the real issue is that many lack problem-solving, critical thinking and analytical skills competencies that must be built over time, ideally during higher education.”

Ndegwa criticized the outdated university and TVET curricula that fails to equip students with relevant skills. "There's a high likelihood that a public university student today is using the same notes as someone who graduated a decade ago," she said, adding that this mismatch has fueled frustration among young graduates who spend years studying, only to discover their qualifications are irrelevant to employers.

She urged the public sector to spearhead curriculum reforms that reflect current market realities, emphasizing the need to "design education from the outside in" starting with industry demands and working backward to align training with those needs.

At the same time, she challenged the private sector to play a more proactive role in developing and supporting talent pipelines through apprenticeships, graduate programs and internships. “Right talent means better results and a stronger bottom line," she said. "Businesses must be willing to invest early in the people they want to hire later.”

The event also featured remarks from Mr. Brian Mulama, Nairobi County Executive Committee Member for Talent, Skills Development and Care, who commended the Genkazi initiative for fostering public-private collaboration.

"The future of Kenya is clearly awakened by those who are willing to act," said Mulama. "We are here today with representatives from government, academia, private sector and civil society all sitting together to find ways we can work as one."

Mulama emphasized the need for policies that connect education to opportunity, arguing that“talent must lead to opportunity, not frustration." He outlined Nairobi County's initiatives to expand access to digital skills training, empower women and youth through entrepreneurship and invest in creative industries.

"When women succeed, everyone wins," he added. "Our goal is to make Nairobi a city of opportunity for all not a city of few opportunities for many."

According to the report, presented by researcher Ochieng', youth under 35 make up 75% of Kenya's population, yet unemployment among this group remains at 35%. Between 2012 and 2023, 90% of new jobs were created in the informal sector, underscoring the urgent need to formalize and support this segment.

The study, conducted across 13 counties, examined labor market trends, hiring practices and inclusion dynamics. It found that while 93% of young people own smartphones, only 7.9% possess the digital skills necessary to leverage them for economic gain.

Employers cited communication, problem-solving and digital literacy as the top demanded skills, yet 62% said they struggle to find qualified candidates. Meanwhile, inclusion remains limited with only 1.3% of public workforce positions held by persons with disabilities and women, especially those with caregiving roles, still facing barriers to entry.

The report proposes a set of actionable recommendations to unlock youth potential and foster inclusive employment like the Mandate digital literacy training in all TVET and tertiary institutions, expand apprenticeship and internship programs, particularly targeting youth from urban informal settlements, Enforce disability employment quotas and promote workplace accessibility, Encourage skills-based hiring and co-design of curricula between industry and academia and offer tax incentives for private sector firms that invest in graduate training and youth employment programs.

Closing the event, Ndegwa reiterated BrighterMonday's commitment to building pathways that connect training to employment.

"It's one thing to train youth, it's another to place them," she said. "That can only happen if we create clear, inclusive pathways through partnership, innovation and shared responsibility.”

She concluded with a challenge to stakeholders, "The evidence is clear, the time to act is now. Together, we can build a future where every young person's talent finds a place in Kenya's economy.”

The AI and Talent Insights Report 2025 by BrighterMonday Kenya and Mastercard Foundation provides a data-driven blueprint for inclusive workforce development in Kenya, highlighting the growing importance of digital literacy, soft skills and multi-sector collaboration in shaping the future of work.