The global conversation around artificial intelligence continues to swing between extremes—excitement over its transformative power and fear of widespread job loss. As machine learning systems evolve to write, paint, code, diagnose, and compose music, entire industries appear increasingly vulnerable.
With each new wave of advancement, AI continues to spark fresh perspectives around the long-standing debate: “Will AI take your job?”
A more nuanced viewpoint emerged during a high-energy panel session at Entertainment Week Lagos (EWL) 2024, where industry leaders gathered to explore AI’s dual nature—as both a powerful tool and a potential disruptor.
The session titled “AI in the Creative Process: Partner or Disruptor?” featured leading experts including Slickcity CEO Malik Afegbua; Brand developer and storyteller- Akinlabi Akinbulumo; Founder of COCOA, Kolapo Oladapo; and Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, Founder and CEO of Rise Networks, reframed the conversation with clarity and data-driven insight.
“AI won’t take your job. Someone who knows how to use AI brilliantly will,” Toyosi asserted.
Her submission cut to the core of today’s workforce transformation—a shift that is especially urgent as AI rapidly integrates itself into industries, workflows, and even daily routines. Globally, artificial intelligence is not only augmenting work but redefining the skills that make workers valuable.
According to research, roles most susceptible to automation or augmentation include copywriting, graphic design, customer service, data analysis, and administrative support—signaling a fundamental shift in how professional value is measured.
“It’s no longer about competing with machines. It’s about evolving with them,” she emphasized.
A 2023 MIT Sloan report further highlights this shift, showing that when AI is used to augment roles rather than replace them, productivity can increase by up to 40%. In sectors like finance, where AI supports auditing processes, human workers are now being retrained for more strategic, analytical roles. Algorithms handle the repetition—people handle the reasoning.
“We must ask ourselves: how do we plan to face today’s challenges with yesterday’s knowledge?” Toyosi asked, drawing attention to the urgent need for educational reform.
“Especially for young people, the foundational concept of artificial intelligence is mathematics. Yet science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are barely featured in our curriculum. The conversation goes deeper than code or computation. It’s a matter of readiness—of psychology, mindset, and systems.”
Recounting her experience at an AI lab at the University of Singapore, where she collaborated with researchers, Toyosi shared a powerful observation:
“I spent a week engaging with students and faculty there, and my biggest takeaway is that AI is not just technology. AI is human psychology. It is knowledge. It is language,” she said. “The foundation of AI is math and logic. But in Nigeria, we’re not teaching the basics.”
In a country like Nigeria—where more than 2,000 languages coexist, and youth make up a significant portion of the population—our current position as technology consumers rather than producers places us at a disadvantage.
A recent study shows that while Nigeria ranks among the highest users of tools like ChatGPT, the country remains largely on the sidelines of creation and innovation.
According to Toyosi, this imbalance threatens Nigeria’s ability to develop the human capital necessary to stay competitive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Today, national wealth is increasingly measured not just by infrastructure or resources, but by intellectual capacity and innovation ecosystems.
“The very foundation of this entire conversation is education,” she emphasized. “The quality of education we’re offering young Nigerians will not give them a fair shot at competing on a global playing field.”
She recalled seeing Nigerian graduates unable to compete with teenagers at the African Leadership Academy in South Africa.
“If you know how to code in 2024, you’re already at the bottom of the food chain. The code you want to write can now be created by AI in microseconds,” she said. “That’s the kind of conversation we need to have—about whether AI is a disruptor or an enabler.”
Whether AI disrupts or enables, she noted, depends on which side of the divide we stand. If we want AI to work for us, then we must go back to the fundamentals—starting with education.
Toyosi also pointed to the widening gap between students and educators in Nigeria:
“Students today are using ChatGPT to write their assignments, while their lecturers can barely use computers,” she said. “This disconnect is more than a tech issue—it’s a crisis in human capital development.”
“There are four things that make a nation powerful: the economy, education, population, and security. And at the very center of it all today—is artificial intelligence.”
Choosing a Side
AI is neither inherently a partner nor a disruptor. Its role is defined by how we choose to understand, adopt, and apply it.
“If we want AI to be the enabler,” Toyosi concluded, “then we need to go back to education.”
In her view, that journey begins with self-learning, corporate reskilling, government investment, and cultivating a national culture of curiosity.
AI fluency, she argued, must become as essential in this era as digital fluency was two decades ago.
“The global AI wave is already reshaping industries. The real question is: will you evolve with it?” Because someone out there already has—and they’re coming for your job.