AI skills for everyday work: notes from a workshop in Nairobi

After a couple of years in Europe completing my master's in AI for Sustainable Societies, it feels good to be back in Nairobi and putting some of that work into practice closer to home.

I was recently at Moringa School facilitating a hands-on workshop on AI Skills for Everyday Work, designed to help people use AI in ways that are practical, accessible and responsible.

What we covered

Together with Jessica Francisca Colaço, we explored how professionals can use AI to:

• Support everyday work
• Sharpen their thinking
• Improve productivity
• Build more effective workflows

We did this regardless of technical background. Nobody needed to write code.

We also spent time on the risks, limitations and responsibilities that come with using AI: privacy and sensitive information, verification, human oversight, and knowing when AI should or should not be used.

Literacy is about fit, not just prompts

The interesting shift is from AI literacy as knowing how to use AI to AI literacy as knowing how AI should fit into the work. Privacy, verification, human oversight and knowing when not to use AI matter as much as prompting skills. That distinction will matter even more as organisations move from individual experimentation to AI embedded in everyday workflows.

What I enjoyed most was seeing people become more intentional about how AI fits into the way they actually work.

More to come

There are more workshops like this coming, for teams and organisations as well as schools. If you would like one for your team, get in touch, or explore the courses on CommonLab.

Thank you to Moringa School for having us, and to everyone who joined us for the day.