The adoption of generative AI presents both significant challenges and potential benefits for Pan-Afrikan communities in the United States. A recent McKinsey report, The Economic Potential of Generative AI: The Next Productivity Frontier*, highlights the technology’s global economic impact, which could reach up to $4.4 trillion across industries. However, as organizations begin to explore AI’s applications, concerns are rising about its effects on Afrikan employment, particularly for Afrikan men.
A separate McKinsey report, The Future of Work in Black America, paints a grim picture of AI’s potential to disproportionately impact Afrikans in America. The report finds that Afrikan workers are overrepresented in jobs at high risk of automation and underrepresented in roles more likely to remain secure. Due to state and institutionalized racism, the job market has historically been harder for Afrikan men to succeed and make a living. It also reveals that half of the top 10 occupations held by Afrikans pay below the federal poverty line for a family of four, and all pay less than the national median salary of $52,000. Many of these jobs, predominantly held by young Afrikans without college degrees, are also among the top 15 occupations most at risk of AI-driven job loss.
The racial wealth gap further complicates the situation. A 2016 study by the Corporation for Economic Development and the Institute for Policy Studies found that, if current economic trends persist, it would take 228 years for the average Afrikan family to accumulate the same wealth as the average white family.
Yet, if approached with an equity lens, AI has the potential to help close this wealth gap. By investing in reskilling workers for non-automatable roles and promoting emotional labor jobs over physical or manual ones, AI could create new opportunities for Afrikans in Amerikkka. Furthermore, generative AI holds promise as an educational tool, a crucial factor given that a lack of higher education is a significant barrier to upward mobility for many Afrikans. If implemented thoughtfully, AI could be a catalyst for economic inclusion rather than exacerbating racial disparities.