AI & Y initiative to accelerate AI skills, a thousand participants and ten countries… is it enough to bridge the region’s gap?

In October 2026, the “AI & Y” program to accelerate AI skills reached its first thousand participants, a number that seems modest when compared with the size of the region, but it reveals a broader pattern: international efforts are moving, yet the gap between those who have the skill and those left behind is widening in silence.

The story starts at the “Artificial Intelligence for Good” summit hosted by the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva. There, 22-year-old Sara Alonzo Vega, founder of “Amblya,” a medical-technology company serving children with lazy eye, and South Korean researcher Mon Choi’s account of AI usage dropping from 31 % among people in their thirties to just 8 % after the sixties, were the speakers. The two speakers share only one result: skill is the dividing line between those who help shape the future and those who merely watch it.

The geographic gap is no less sharp than the age gap.AI infrastructure is concentrated in advanced economies, while the fastest-growing age group (40 to 64) is concentrated in developing economies. This spatial mismatch means that training programmes that are not designed locally will repeat marginalisation rather than address it.

The “AI & Y Rebuilds” programme, in partnership with the International Telecommunication Union and the GSM Association, chose a different path: in-person workshops in ten countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya and Uzbekistan, targeting women aged 18 to 25 who have rarely used a computer. The outcome in Nairobi: more than 90 % of the graduates expressed interest in pursuing career or study paths in AI. In Tashkent, the share exceeded 92 %.

The initiative does not stop at youth.In partnership with Korea’s Kaist, the International Telecommunication Union and “AI & Y” produced a report based on 14 case studies about older adults and AI. The Director General of the Office of Telecommunications Development, Kozmas Zafazava, summarised the findings in June 2026: “An inclusive digital future does not happen by accident.” The report maps barriers: non-inclusive design, lack of learning opportunities after retirement, and proposes scalable practical interventions.

In Japan, Masako Wakamiya designed her first iPhone app at eighty-one, after having touched a computer only at sixty. Her story is not an exception; it is a model of what can happen when tools and support become available.

What this means for readers in the Gulf, Egypt and the Levant:Programs such as “AI & Y Rebuilds” and “Digital Skills” (under the “Equals” alliance) create genuine entry pathways, but their reach remains limited relative to the millions of job seekers. Foundational AI skill, the ability to evaluate generated content, use tools safely, understand limits, has become a prerequisite for participation in the labour market, not an extra advantage.

Practical step: watch for announcements from “AI & Y Rebuilds,” the International Labour Organization and the International Telecommunication Union about new cohorts in Egypt and Jordan. If you are in a hiring or training role, ask your training partner to adopt a curriculum that integrates technology with ethics and leadership; that is what proved effective in the ten workshops. Skill is not granted, it is built; programmes that start from zero and lift the trainee to “I see myself as an innovator” are the ones worth investing in.