How AI can leapfrog hurdles to unlock the Global South's job market

The dominant narrative about the Global South is a story of scarcity. Scarcity of capital, scarcity of infrastructure, scarcity of expertise. This narrative is wrong.

The real scarcity is a scarcity of imagination in the systems we use to empower talent. The result is a hidden crisis: millions of essential services that people urgently need and are willing to pay for remain structurally out of reach. Not because the market doesn't exist, but because the systems to serve it never did.

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers a path to leapfrog these constraints in the Global South. This is what that future could look like — and what it will take to unlock it.

Inaccessible professional services aren’t just an inconvenience — they’re a drag on entire economies. The absence of cost-effective healthcare, legal support and agricultural guidance imposes a heavy penalty on households and national productivity.

According to the World Health Organization, over 50% of people in low-income countries lack access to essential health services. This leads to missed diagnoses, worsening illnesses and lost income. A mother in Zambia might wait three days and lose $30 in wages to reach a clinic for a diagnosis that an AI-powered mobile tool could offer in minutes for less than $1.

It is estimated that sub-Saharan Africa loses more than $4 billion annually to preventable crop and livestock diseases. AI-powered tools — such as those piloted by platforms like Hello Tractor — can detect and mitigate these issues early, improving yields and food security.

Over 90% of African small businesses operate informally, often without proper contracts or access to affordable legal services. A significant share fail because of unresolved disputes that could have been prevented with a $1 AI-enabled contract review.

These costs — the Scarcity Tax — are real, measurable and solvable.

The common misconception is that underserved communities have no purchasing power. But the data tells a different story. They are willing and able to pay a cost proportional to their income.

There are over 1.2 billion mobile connections across Africa today. Platforms like M-Pesa and MTN MoMo prove that people will pay for value, especially when it’s accessible, immediate and affordable. Communities routinely spend on informal health consultations, spiritual services and ad hoc legal help — not because they’re cheap, but because they’re available.

The choice isn’t between a $1 solution and something free. The real choice is between a $1 solution and a $50 loss — in wages, crops or opportunities — due to delay or inaction.

AI is not replacing entire professions. It’s unbundling them — transforming services into discrete, solvable tasks that can be delivered by more people, at lower cost, with the same or even better outcomes.

The current professional model is built around credentials that are expensive, time-consuming and often misaligned with the problems most people face. This has turned basic services into luxury goods for much of the Global South.

But, AI enables something radically different: task-level delivery. You don't need to wait for a specialist when a trained worker, equipped with AI, can deliver 80% of the value.

Imagine…

…a health worker in a remote Ethiopian village using an app to scan symptoms and identify early signs of tuberculosis — with backup from a diagnostic AI. Ethiopia has trained over 40,000 health extension workers to deliver care at the community level. With AI tools, they can do more, faster and with greater accuracy.

…a mother in Uganda, minutes after birth, using her phone to record her newborn’s first cry. An app like Ubenwa analyzes it instantly to detect signs of birth asphyxia — a condition where every second matters.

…a group of villagers in Peru are tired of waiting for public works to reach them. Using AI-enabled mobile platforms, they design a structurally sound footbridge themselves in weeks.

…a young entrepreneur in Rwanda using a free SMS-based legal AI to scan a landlord’s lease for exploitative terms, getting protection that used to require a law degree or an expensive lawyer.

These are not prototypes — they are real. They represent a broader shift: a move from credential-based delivery to outcome-based access.

The primary barrier now isn’t technology — it’s mindset. Many systems still default to credential-based gatekeeping, rather than outcome-based regulation.

What’s needed:

• Regulatory sandboxes that allow safe, real-world deployment and feedback.

• Public procurement focused on measurable outcomes, not professional titles.

• Tiered pricing to reach underserved markets profitably.

This is also a strategic opportunity for local champions. Telcos, like Safaricom and MTN and financial institutions, like Ecobank, can lead this transformation by embedding AI-powered services into their networks. If they don’t, global platforms will — turning local infrastructure into low-margin utilities.

The issue isn’t the absence of work. It’s that millions of jobs remain latent — blocked by delivery gaps, credential bottlenecks and legacy systems. These are not hypothetical roles of the future; they are essential services that people are willing to pay for today.

AI offers the first scaleable, economically viable way to match this demand. It won’t solve every challenge, but it can dramatically lower the cost of delivering vital services — and build a new category of professionals who are trained to operate AI, not replace it.

This is not about charity. It’s about productivity. It’s about unlocking vast economic value by making work and impact possible where it wasn’t before. That is the Latent Jobs Dividend: a new engine for global growth, powered by the potential of the many, not the privilege of the few.