The First Rung: why SHE IS AI is signing Everyone In
AI adoption is moving faster than AI capability, and the cost of that gap is falling on the people least able to carry it. That is why SHE IS AI is adding our name to Everyone In, a cross-party draft AI policy for New Zealand, and why we are asking business owners, educators and parents to read it before the 7 November election.
How big is the gap?
Start with the world. Over the next decade, 1.2 billion young people will reach working age. Around 420 million jobs are projected for them. That leaves nearly 800 million without a clear path to work, according to the World Bank.
Now narrow the lens. Microsoft's latest diffusion data puts generative AI use at 28.8% of working-age people in the Global North and 16.2% in the Global South, and the gap is widening. A divide between AI haves and have-nots is forming in real time.
Then come home. According to Datacom's State of AI Index, cited in Everyone In, 87% of larger New Zealand organisations say they are using AI. Only 16% say it has changed a core part of how they work. Buying licences is being counted as adoption.
Who is teaching people AI?
Mostly, nobody. Employment Hero's AI Paradox Report 2026 surveyed 8,744 leaders and employees across Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK. Half of workers say their employer is doing little or nothing to build their AI skills. More than half are learning AI from YouTube, TikTok, Reddit and Discord.
Meanwhile, employers now rank AI skills ahead of prior work experience and ahead of a degree. The credential that matters most is the one we have left people to teach themselves after hours. The youngest workers are the most likely to carry that cost alone.
In New Zealand the tension is sharper. NZ workers are the most likely in the study to see AI training as their employer's job, yet only 15% of NZ SMEs say AI is core to their operations.
What is happening to the first rung?
Stanford's Digital Economy Lab reports that employment of 22 to 25 year olds in the most AI-exposed occupations now sits about 19% below their less-exposed peers, driven mainly by reduced hiring. Experienced workers show no comparable gap. The first rung of the career ladder is where AI is landing first.
To be fair, the evidence is contested. Employment Hero found AI-core firms grew entry-level headcount at twice the rate of non-adopters, while noting it cannot prove AI caused that growth. Read together, the findings point the same way: firms that invest in capability grow, and people left without it fall behind.
Who is leading on ethics and governance?
No one clearly owns it. Everyone In notes that responsibility for AI in New Zealand is split across agencies. In schools, the Education Review Office found 93% of school leaders use AI, and 7 in 10 have no policy covering data privacy and security. Around 2 in 5 secondary students say they have used AI on assessed work in ways they knew they should not.
We see the same fork everywhere we work. In Auckland, students are learning with AI every day. In other countries, we are speaking with universities where frightened parents are blocking it altogether. Blocking leaves young people behind. Leaving it to chance leaves them unguided.
Why we are signing Everyone In
Everyone In asks for five things: lead it, learn it, use it, teach it and look after it. It costs each one, publishes its workings, and belongs to no party. One line made our decision:
"Workplace redeployment support also belongs inside this programme from Day 1, not bolted on later when AI's serious effects on the job market hit."
That is the lesson the UN-convened ITU AI Skills Coalition shared with us about the 800 million. Build the pathways now, through global collaboration, before the effects arrive. Aotearoa can model that at home.
What SHE IS AI is doing about it
Capability is infrastructure. It needs trained educators, trusted local channels and clear norms for what good use looks like. It also asks us to redesign how work is done, rather than bolting AI onto the old way.
Our order of operations is clarity, then responsibility, then capability. In practice that means:
Small businesses: hands-on consulting, so, in Mark Laurence's words, "a small business can get proper help getting started with AI rather than watching YouTube videos at 11pm at night."
Everyone: the SHE IS AI hub launches this October with foundational courses, starting with AI Ethical Foundations.
Educators: teachers need help, guidance and training first. Our Applied Intelligence Pathway trains educators and leaders to carry ethical AI capability into their own communities, so they can in turn help the kids.
Who owns AI capability?
You, your employer, parents, teachers and government. All of us, on purpose. Don't leave it to chance.
Read Everyone In and add your name · Join the SHE IS AI hub waitlist
Several sources cited here are published by organisations that sell AI products or services. We cite them for their data and name that openly.
