How AI gutted Kenya's essay-writing industry, which at its peak paid 40,000+ people in Nairobi to do overseas students' homework, leaving few paths back to work (New York Times)

AI is rapidly eliminating labor-intensive digital services that once powered large-scale gig economies, as seen in Kenya’s essay-writing industry where thousands of workers lost income when generative tools made the work economically obsolete. For CIOs and technology leaders, this is a clear signal that AI can disrupt outsourced and freelance knowledge work just as aggressively as it transforms internal operations, increasing the urgency to redesign labor strategies, reskill teams, and reassess vendor and service models built on human throughput.