The surprising jobs AI has wiped out: highly educated Kenyans who wrote students’ essays

For years, highly educated Kenyans in Nairobi earned a living writing university essays for students abroad. Generative AI has now taken away much of that work, leaving a freelance market that once employed at least 40,000 people in serious decline.

Theresious Bundi, 34, wrote more than 2,500 essays over about 12 years. He said the work paid at least five times more than a career in public health. After moving to Nairobi to attend university in 2011, he combined his studies with online writing. Following his public health degree in 2015, he made essay writing his main business and charged between $40 and $70 per assignment.

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I earned at least five times more than I did in public health.

The market changed after OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022. Students began using the chatbot instead of hiring writers, driving down both the number of assignments and the fees. Much of the remaining work involves editing AI-generated text to help it evade software designed to detect academic cheating.

The collapse has hit a country where more than 100,000 students graduate from university each year, but formal jobs remain scarce. Youth unemployment is estimated at more than 25%, while about 80% of available work is informal, including delivery services, construction and street vending.

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Some people returned to their hometowns, while others tried different industries but became frustrated because they could not find formal jobs.

Richard Esilache, 38, once expanded his business enough to employ more than 100 writers. He has moved into AI-assisted photo editing, but earns less than before. Alex Munyua, 30, a former industrial chemist, shifted into data labeling and social-media monitoring after essay writing declined. Those jobs are also disappearing under pressure from AI. He said some former writers had returned home, while others had tried new industries but failed to find formal employment.

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I never expected AI to be able to do this kind of work.

Kenya had promoted online freelancing and outsourcing as ways to address youth unemployment. But as AI removes assignments, the government has offered no clear alternative, the New York Times reported. Data from Scale AI and the Center for AI Safety showed that the task-replacement rate for leading AI models rose from 2.5% last October to 16% in June.

Bundi now works with a German government development agency, helping young Kenyans enter the digital economy. “I never expected AI to be able to do this kind of work,” he said. He warned that the technology would also target bank workers, accountants, engineers and architects, calling it “a trend that is coming for everyone.”

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AI will target bank workers, accountants, engineers and architects. It is a trend that is coming for everyone.