Black inventors powered America’s first industrial revolution.
Lewis Latimer’s carbon filament made electric lighting practical. Granville Woods’ railway telegraph prevented train collisions. Garrett Morgan created the traffic signal and the gas mask. Sarah Boone redesigned the ironing board into a widely used household tool.
When innovators with lived experience gain access to emerging technologies, they build solutions that are both more inclusive and more commercially viable.
These innovators did not simply participate in America’s economic transformation; they made it possible. Yet their names are often forgotten, their patents undervalued or stolen, their contributions erased.
The reason was never a lack of talent. It was the lack of access to capital, networks, markets and the infrastructure that converts innovation into generational wealth.
Today, as artificial intelligence reshapes the global economy, that same pattern of exclusion is re-emerging.
Centering Black innovation in AI is essential to competitiveness and economic stability.
Black entrepreneurs understand that underserved markets are worth trillions. Teams with diverse leadership are significantly more likely to capture new markets. Diverse development teams catch algorithmic failures earlier, reducing long-term liability.
All of that said, the United States cannot compete globally while excluding 13% of its population from designing foundational technologies.
Inclusion leads to better products, stronger companies and safer systems.
A $43B warning
Artificial intelligence is projected to generate nearly $7 trillion in new global wealth each year, with close to $2 trillion expected to flow to the United States. Historically, household wealth captures roughly 30% of GDP, meaning American families could gain nearly $500 billion annually from AI-driven growth.
For Black Americans, the math looks very different.
McKinsey’s Institute for Economic Mobility warns that if Black households continue capturing only 38 cents of every new dollar of household wealth , a pattern that has held for decades generative AI will widen the racial wealth gap by $43 billion every year. That is the equivalent of $3.6 billion in lost opportunity every month.
The risk is also concentrated. Nearly 24% of Black workers are in jobs with more than 75% automation potential. Half of all “gateway jobs,” historically reliable paths to the middle class, are expected to disappear by 2060. The ladders that once supported economic mobility are being removed.
From steam to silicon
The parallels between past industrial revolutions and today’s AI boom are striking.
During the Industrial Revolution, Black inventors revolutionized communication, transportation and manufacturing. But exclusion from patent systems, capital markets, skilled networks and industry associations ensured that wealth flowed upward to white industrialists, not to the Black innovators who made progress possible.
Today’s AI economy reflects many of the same barriers.
- Capital access: 2024, BlacInk founders received only 0.4% of all startup funding, or $730 million out of $314 billion. In AI specifically, Black-led startups received $36 million out of $67 billion in 2023.
- Network exclusion: The social and academic networks that fuel AI entrepreneurship Stanford, MIT, Silicon Valley remain overwhelmingly white and Asian. Informal conversations that lead to new ventures often exclude Black technologists.
- Pipeline barriers: Black Americans represent 13% of the population but only 7% of computer science graduates, 2% of AI doctorates and 3.7% of technical roles at major tech companies.
- Data extraction without benefit: AI systems are trained on Black culture, language and digital expression, yet the value created from that data rarely returns to Black communities.
This is not about a talent gap. It is about an infrastructure gap.
A blueprint for inclusive AI infrastructure
Progress will require more than isolated diversity initiatives. It will require new systems that ensure equitable access to the opportunities created by AI.
AI accelerators for underrepresented founders
Cities and states should invest in structured programs that provide technical training, seed capital and mentorship.
Community-owned angel networks
Black-led investment networks can ensure that capital and culturally competent mentorship reach innovators early.
HBCU AI excellence centers
HBCUs should be hubs for AI research, industry partnerships and entrepreneurial development. Recent investments from IBM and Google are promising, but they need national scale.
Policy innovation labs
Black communities can create shared data resources that generate revenue and ensure ethical use.
Policy innovation labs
Black technologists should help craft the AI governance frameworks that cities and states will rely on. These labs can support standards for equity, data transparency and bias mitigation.
The innovation paradox
Despite these barriers, Black entrepreneurs are leading in AI adoption.
According to Intuit QuickBooks research, 79% of Black-owned businesses already use AI tools, compared with 62% of non-Black businesses. They are applying AI to problems that mainstream tech often overlooks, including:
- culturally competent healthcare,
- machine learning for underbanked communities,
- education tools designed for diverse learning needs, and
- supply chain support for small businesses.
A few examples illustrate what this looks like in practice.
Lendistry uses AI to analyze alternative data and extend credit to small businesses that traditional banks often reject. During the PPP program, it dramatically increased access for Black-owned businesses.
Greenwood uses machine learning to design financial products for Black and Latino consumers.
Rwazi applies AI to map consumer behavior in emerging markets where traditional market research is limited.
HacWare, founded by Tiffany Ricks, uses AI to automate cybersecurity training and earned Google for Startups support.
World Wide Technology, a Black-owned enterprise solutions company, integrates AI across large-scale systems.
These companies demonstrate that when innovators with lived experience gain access to emerging technologies, they build solutions that are both more inclusive and more commercially viable.
The policy window is closing
In 2024, federal agencies introduced 59 AI-related regulations, double the number from the previous year. Yet none require diversity in AI teams or address algorithmic discrimination at scale.
Colorado’s new law on “high-risk” AI systems is a starting point but it applies only within one state. Without broader action, biased systems will become harder to correct and harder to regulate effectively.
Every year without action means another cohort of potential innovators pushed out of the AI economy.
The pattern is familiar: Black innovators build the tools of progress, and others capture the wealth.
It does not have to happen again.
Black entrepreneurs already lead in AI adoption.
The infrastructure exists.
The capital exists.
The expertise exists.
The opportunity now is to invest intentionally in Black-led innovation, strengthen community-owned capital, and build inclusive AI systems from the start.
Black innovation powered America’s industrial past. It can and should power America’s AI future.
The question is whether the country will finally allow Black innovators to benefit from the wealth they create.
