“Get with AI or get left behind” is a warning that can be taken as a threat or a rallying cry. Increasingly, in Black communities, it’s becoming a rallying cry.
Malcolm Coley, a Wilmington multi-venture entrepreneur best known as a cofounder of the esports education venture Futures First Gaming, saw the AI-generated writing on the wall. He created ReadyPromptOne, a culture-driven AI brand incorporating aspects of hip hop, HBCU culture and social justice, and hosted Delaware’s first AI Summit of the same name on July 19.
This kind of cultural AI movement is part of a national trend.
Last summer, a Walton Family Foundation survey revealed that students and teachers of color are embracing AI in classrooms at higher rates than their white counterparts, up to 86% in some urban districts. This adoption underscores not only the hunger for innovation in historically underinvested schools but also highlights a critical equity moment.
“The ReadyPromptOne summit is more than just AI; it’s about making sure our communities aren’t left behind in the next wave of innovation,” Coley said. “We’re creating a space where culture, equity, and technology intersect to shape a smarter, more innovative and inclusive future.”
It was more than a one-day event to spread awareness in the community, he said. It’s a first step in a localized movement that includes entrepreneurs, educators, students, tech workers and parents. The idea is to build an intentional community around AI and create economic opportunities, especially for underrepresented groups.
As AI rapidly reshapes the economy, education, and creative industries, communities of color across the US face a similar crossroads: lead, adapt or risk being left behind.
The catch-up game
As AI rapidly evolves, its impact on the future of work can’t be understated.
The World Economic Forum estimates that there will be 170 million new jobs created by AI by 2030, with a net gain of 78 million AI-related jobs when you factor in the 92 million jobs that AI will replace. Adaptability to this new landscape, and the ability — and willingness — to acquire new skills will determine the skills gap.
Unlike most traditional career pipelines, access to AI skills is nearly universal, at least in the US, where about 97% of people aged 18 to 49 have a smartphone, and, by extension, access to free tools like ChatGPT, CoPilot and Gemini. That naturally includes a large number of people who are marginalized, under-resourced and low-income.
A 2024 Consumer Affairs report found that teenagers from the lowest-income households use smartphones at roughly the same rate or higher than wealthier peers.
Coley is among a growing number of people who recognize that widespread access to generative AI tools is an opportunity for racial equity, and that, while AI has the potential to democratize technology, it’s not going to do it by itself.
Greg Watkins, cofounder of the news and culture site AllHipHop.com, based in Newark, Delaware, and a panelist at ReadyPromptOne, agrees. He uses AI as part of his business, and what he sees firsthand doesn’t necessarily reflect the Walton study findings.
“I travel pretty much all around the country and I talk to the Black and Latino community,” Watkins said. “And I can’t tell you how far behind our communities are in understanding this technology, adopting it, exposing our children to it.”
Resisting the fear of AI, Watkins said, is necessary if the future is going to be equitable.
“I was just down at Del State, and met an older person of influence, working with a lot of students, terrified of AI,” Watkins said. “And I’m like … this is going to have a much greater impact on your students than you think.”
The impact of AI goes beyond jobs
AI tools themselves are only one piece of the technology’s growing impact.
Panelist Rich Jester, secretary of the Delaware AI Commission, said he considers himself an AI optimist, but his role requires him to be a “logical pessimist.” He noted that there are two paths AI can take.
“One path leads to more prosperity, better quality of life,” he said. “Another path doesn’t.”
The pessimistic path includes some things that are already a reality in some parts of the country, as unregulated high-energy AI operations are already starting to cause harm to marginalized people, following a long pattern of disproportionate negative impact on communities of color due to higher levels of fossil fuel pollution exposure.
“[The use of] fossil fuels — like what’s happening in Tennessee right now — is a tragedy,” Jester said. “Elon Musk’s data center has diesel generators, over 20 of them, running 24 hours a day, spewing [pollution] into low-income communities.”
The energy demands of AI are a lot for most green energy sources like solar and wind can handle, Jester said. Nuclear power, however, can handle demands and is far cleaner and sustainable than fossil fuels.
“Nuclear power is not the stuff you see in HBO’s Chernobyl anymore,” he said. “Some reactors can fit in a shipping container and are just as portable.”
These new-generation nuclear reactors, he said, should be part of a state- and federal-level strategy to meet AI’s energy demands without harming marginalized communities.
“Every single person in this room should be telling their state senator and state representative that whatever data center they’re going to build, better not be powered by fossil fuels,” Jester said.
A proposed data center in Delaware City is already fueling concern about energy use, toxic emissions and increased residential energy bills on social media and Reddit.
The future of workforce development
Some of the most impactful workforce development programs in the last decade have been coding bootcamps and other tech-facing courses that can lead to high-paying jobs, with or without a college degree.
Terrance Bowman is the managing director of adult programs and employer partnerships at Code Differently, a tech workforce development program cofounded by morning keynote speaker Tariq Hook that’s dedicated to promoting diversity in tech. Its cohorts find many students via word-of-mouth in Wilmington’s predominantly Black neighborhoods, as program alums land life-changing careers in tech.
Code Differently and the more traditional coding bootcamp Zip Code Wilmington have both embraced AI in their coding-based workforce development programs this year, a move that aims to make their graduates even more desirable by employers.
“AI takes away some of the tasks you don’t want to do, so you can solve the bigger problems,” Bowman said on the panel. “That’s where we’re training our engineers to go.”
Those without social advantages looking to enter a tech field need to assume they’re already two years behind, Bowman said. But, he stressed, so are traditional college graduates.
“Students are literally graduating with four-year degrees from the University of Delaware and cannot find a [tech] job,” Bowman said.
The reason, he said, is that the speed at which technology is evolving doesn’t align with spending years learning specialized skills. Prompt engineering itself has evolved so rapidly that generative AI chatbots don’t require nearly as much direction as they did just a month or two ago — something that came to light in a workshop where complex and simple prompts were meant to return very different responses, but instead returned nearly equally thorough results.
Reskilling has long been a necessity for tech professionals, but never as much as now, when things can change week to week or even day to day.
“Your major is a part of your journey,” Bowman stressed. “It’s not a destination.”
And neither, Coley said, is ReadyPromptOne. “Don’t just take notes,” he said. “Find your partner. Build something.”
