- Read Akanegbu’s op-ed in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Georgia Must Regulate AI in the Public Interest to Thrive in This Age”
- Listen to coverage of the report from WABE: “Atlanta Study Questions What ‘AI-Literate’ Means for the Job Market”
- Read the literature review: “From Plantations to Platforms: Examining AI’s Relationship to Race and Labor”
- Read a preview of Akanegbu’s research on Points: “‘AI Can’t Do Nothing With Us!’: Inside One Atlanta Workforce Training Program”
As AI becomes a defining feature of the US labor market, “AI literacy” is being positioned as a new baseline for employability. But despite the widespread use of the term across workforce and policy agendas, it remains a hazy concept, one that is often less about technical proficiency and more about performing readiness. For many workers,
AI literacy has become a gatekeeping mechanism, a moving target for career advancement that they are expected to hit with little guidance and no guarantees.
Instead of treating AI literacy as a neutral and static skillset, in (404) Job Not Found Anuli Akanegbu analyzes it as a social and political construct manufactured by the power of employer expectations, media narratives, place branding, philanthropic investments, and political agendas. Based on months-long ethnographic fieldwork in Atlanta — a city shaped by a legacy of racial capitalism and a culture of Black self-determination — this report interrogates what it means to be perceived as AI literate in today’s labor market, and how perceptions of skill are shaping the career outcomes of Black workers already navigating racial, spatial, occupational, and economic inequities.
Akanegbu calls for a complete reimagining of workforce development in the age of AI, one that shifts from worker-first rhetoric to worker-centered practices. In this report, she urges academics, policymakers, and practitioners to expand the spatial scope of public discourse on AI and labor to include the US South — not just as a labor pool, but as a region with histories and cities that are essential to understanding and transforming the future of work.
Suggested citation: Akanegbu, Anuli, PhD. (404) Job Not Found: What Workforce Training Can’t Fix for Black Atlantans in the Age of AI, Data & Society Research Institute, 2026. https://doi.org/10.69985/OOTF6452