NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 8 – Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic forced companies to rethink where work could be done, the laptop is no longer simply an alternative to the office.
Artificial intelligence is turning it into a productivity platform.
Tools such as ChatGPT and Claude can help workers draft documents, analyse information, write code, conduct research and handle routine administrative tasks. Combined with cloud computing, digital payments and faster internet, they are changing not only where people work but how much work one person can deliver.
For Kenya, that creates a bigger opportunity than simply allowing employees to work from home.
It could enable Kenyan workers and companies to sell software development, customer support, digital marketing, research, accounting, creative services and other knowledge-intensive work directly to clients around the world.
The question is whether Kenya can turn its growing digital workforce and technology infrastructure into a globally competitive digital-services export industry — and whether it can do so beyond Nairobi.
From remote work to global work
Before the pandemic, remote working was still relatively uncommon among many companies operating in Kenya. Most employers expected workers to be physically present in offices or at work sites.
Movement restrictions and curfews changed that almost overnight.
Companies adopted video conferencing, cloud platforms, smartphones and laptops to keep employees connected. The experience demonstrated that significant amounts of work could be delivered without employees being physically present.
AI is now taking that transformation further.
Remote Work 2.0 is not simply an employee working from home. It is a freelancer, professional or small team in Kenya delivering services to a client in London, New York or Dubai without ever sharing the same office.
For Kenya, the prize is therefore not just remote employment. It is the export of digital services and knowledge.
A workforce is already emerging
There are signs that the foundation is being built.
The government says more than 300,000 digital jobs were created through the Jitume and Ajira programmes in 2025, compared with 99,071 in 2022. The programmes have also trained more than 1.8 million young people in digital skills, according to the government’s delivery scorecard.
The Ajira Digital platform currently lists more than 651,000 members, 229 Ajira centres and 129 communities.
The government has also launched a Digital Outsourcing Jobs for Kenya’s Youth initiative aimed at connecting trained young people with international outsourcing opportunities.
The Ministry of ICT and the Digital Economy has described outsourcing as an important avenue for creating jobs for young Kenyans. In 2025, it said Kenya’s BPO sector had created 19,650 jobs, exceeding a target of 10,000.
The opportunity extends beyond conventional call-centre work.
The International Labour Organization says Kenya’s digital labour platforms support activities ranging from web development, graphic design, content creation and marketing to data labelling and other digital services.
That creates the possibility of moving from exporting labour to exporting expertise.
James Oyange, a data protection officer located in Nairobi who has worked as a freelancer for global platforms like Appen, claims that he began with data input before transitioning to transcription and translation for AI systems.
Despite the arduous nature of the task, Oyange told Business Insider Africa that the compensation was modest.
For instance, Appen used to pay him $16 a day, or $2 per hour.
He told Business Insider Africa, “It was tedious, especially when you look at the pay.”
AI could change Kenya’s competitiveness
Artificial intelligence adds another dimension.
The Digital 2026 Mid-Year Global Update ranked Kenya first globally for AI usage, with 97.5 per cent of internet users aged 16 and above surveyed by GWI saying they had used at least one AI tool in the previous month. The figure reflects the survey’s measure of AI use and should not be interpreted as meaning that 97.5 per cent of all Kenyans use generative AI.
Kenyan businesses are increasingly using AI for customer service, research, content creation, coding, financial analysis and other administrative functions.
Safaricom, for example, has incorporated AI into areas including customer care and financial fraud detection.
For a Kenyan freelancer competing for an international contract, AI can reduce the time needed to research, draft, analyse or produce a deliverable.
For a BPO company, it can help employees handle more customer interactions and administrative tasks.
But the technology creates a paradox.
The same AI that makes Kenyan workers more productive can also make some outsourcing jobs less valuable.
Basic customer-service queries, transcription, data entry and routine content production are increasingly susceptible to automation. Kenya therefore needs to train workers not only to use digital tools but to perform tasks that remain valuable as AI becomes widespread.
That means technical expertise, critical thinking, communication, problem-solving and the ability to use AI responsibly.
“While we work in a call centre or contact centre capacity for some of our clients, for others we provide all kinds of back-office support, finance and accounting, data entry, processing and management and, for some, insurance processing tasks too,” CCI Kenya Managing Director Rishi Jatania said earlier to Business Matters
“Every business we work with needs focused cost-effective solutions, and our company is able to provide these. We work quickly to establish the skills necessary to provide the solution to companies looking to outsource – whether that’s for retail, telecommunications, across leisure sectors or mobile technology – and develop a deep understanding of the needs of the client.”
The infrastructure challenge
Kenya has also been expanding the infrastructure needed to support the digital economy.
The Ministry estimates that the global BPO market is worth more than USD260 billion and could exceed USD500 billion, while submarine cable connections through Mombasa provide access to international markets.
In September 2025, Airtel Africa’s Nxtra announced construction of a 44MW data centre at Tatu City, near Nairobi. The facility is expected to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2027 and will serve enterprises, governments, startups and other customers requiring secure digital infrastructure.
Kenya has also pursued a much larger digital infrastructure project through Microsoft and G42. Their USD1 billion investment announced in 2024 included a proposed geothermal-powered data centre at Olkaria, an East Africa cloud region and investments in AI, research, connectivity and digital skills.
But the project has also highlighted the amount of electricity required by an increasingly AI-driven economy.
President William Ruto said the proposed facility could require about 1GW of power, raising questions about the capacity of Kenya’s electricity system.
The broader lesson is clear: a digital-services hub requires more than fibre. It needs reliable electricity, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity and affordable connectivity.
The Nairobi problem
Talent remains another constraint.
A World Bank assessment found shortages of highly digitally skilled workers, experienced technology managers and workers with basic digital and soft skills.
Nairobi has consequently emerged as Kenya’s dominant technology hub because of its concentration of technology companies, investors, innovation hubs and accelerators.
An ILO survey found that 44 per cent of online freelance workers surveyed lived in Nairobi, compared with 10 per cent in Nakuru, 7 per cent in Kisumu and 6 per cent each in Mombasa and Eldoret.
About 60 per cent had migrated from elsewhere in Kenya, mainly in search of education or employment.
The concentration presents a problem for a country seeking to make digital work a nationwide economic opportunity.
But remote work also offers a way around it.
A software developer in Kisumu can theoretically serve an international client without relocating to Nairobi. A digital marketer in Mombasa can work for a company in Europe. A customer-service agent in Eldoret can serve customers thousands of kilometres away.
The missing ingredients are reliable connectivity, electricity, suitable workspaces, specialised training and access to professional networks.
Secondary cities could therefore develop specialised digital-service clusters rather than simply supplying workers to Nairobi.
From digital participation to digital exports
Kenya is not competing in an empty market.
South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria and Rwanda are also seeking to attract BPO investment, technology companies and digital workers.
Kenya’s advantage will depend on whether it can combine its technology ecosystem, connectivity, English-speaking workforce and growing AI adoption with skills and costs attractive enough for international clients.
It will also need to measure success differently.
The number of people trained is important, but so are the value of digital services exported, the number of international contracts secured and the incomes generated by Kenyan workers and companies.
The ILO has also warned that digital workers, particularly freelancers and independent contractors, face challenges around social protection and labour rights.
Kenya’s first digital-economy push was largely about connectivity: laying fibre, expanding mobile internet and putting services online.
The next phase is about productivity and exports.
Remote Work 2.0 could allow Kenya to move beyond being a market that consumes digital technology to becoming a country that sells expertise to the world.
But that will depend on whether Kenya can produce enough high-skilled workers, expand reliable infrastructure beyond Nairobi and ensure that AI makes its workforce more competitive rather than simply making entry-level jobs obsolete.
The opportunity is therefore bigger than working from home.
It is about whether a developer in Kisumu, a designer in Nakuru or a researcher in Nairobi can sell their expertise globally — and whether Kenya can capture a larger share of the value created by the world’s rapidly expanding digital economy.
