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Rob Richardson
February 13, 2026

For New Disruptors

Disruption Now® is a tech-empowered platform helping elevate organizations in entrepreneurship, social impact, and creativity. Through training, product development, podcasts, events, and digital media storytelling, we make emerging technology human-centric and accessible to everyone. This week I've been reflecting on what it means to fight for civil rights in a world where the battlefield has shifted from lunch counters to login screens—and what Black History Month demands of us in this moment.

The Old Digital Divide vs. The New One

For the past two decades, digital equity conversations centered on broadband access and device ownership. Get people connected. Put computers in schools. Close the homework gap. That fight mattered—and it's not over. But it's also no longer enough. The divide that will define economic mobility for the next generation isn't about whether you have a smartphone. It's about whether you know how to use AI to multiply your value in the marketplace.

A January 2025 McKinsey study found that the 100 million Americans who make up the frontline workforce—nurses, warehouse workers, retail staff, construction crews—are being systematically excluded from AI training even as their jobs are being transformed by it. Almost half of C-suite executives say their AI deployment is too slow, citing talent skill gaps as the primary reason. Meanwhile, companies are investing billions in AI-powered automation while spending almost nothing on workforce productivity tools for the people actually doing the work.

The numbers are stark. According to a 2024 Randstad survey, 75% of companies are adopting AI, but only 35% of workers have received any AI training in the past year. Among frontline employees, only 14% have received training on how AI will change their jobs—despite 86% reporting they need it. And the gap has a demographic profile: 71% of workers with AI skills are men, and older workers receive training at dramatically lower rates than their younger colleagues. If you're a woman, someone without a college degree, or part of a historically underserved community, the odds are stacked against you getting the training you need to stay competitive.

Why This Is a Civil Rights Issue

This is Black History Month. And as someone who founded the first college chapter of the NAACP at the University of Cincinnati, served as Chairman of UC's Board of Trustees, and spent years fighting for educational access for all, I don't use the phrase "civil rights issue" lightly. But that's exactly what this is. The mechanisms have changed, but the pattern is painfully familiar: a new economic system emerges, and the people who've historically been locked out of opportunity find themselves locked out again.

Throughout American history, literacy has been wielded as a tool of exclusion. Literacy tests at the ballot box. Credentialing requirements that served as proxies for discrimination. Educational systems are designed to funnel certain communities away from economic power. Today, AI fluency is becoming the new literacy—and without intentional intervention, we will replicate the same exclusionary patterns with new technology.

The UNESCO Global AI Ethics and Governance Observatory put it plainly in August 2024: the AI divide represents unequal access, benefits, and opportunities, and the most marginalized communities—women, people of color, disabled individuals—bear the brunt of it. Economic mobility in the twenty-first century will be determined by who can use AI to solve problems, streamline work, and create value. If you can't, you're not just behind. You're being pushed out.

The Fluency Gap in Practice

Here's what makes this different from the old digital divide: it's not about access to the tool. ChatGPT is free. Claude has a free tier. The tools are available. What's missing is the fluency—the ability to use these tools effectively to transform how you work.

I call this the Fluency Gap. Most AI training today operates at a surface level: here's what AI is, here's a basic prompt, look at this cool output. That's awareness. It's not fluency. Fluency means knowing how to assemble context so that an AI gives you useful results. It means developing judgment about when to trust AI output and when to push back. It means breaking complex projects into tasks where AI can add value. It means integrating these tools into your actual workflow—not just playing with them on your lunch break. These skills don't come from a 30-minute webinar. They come from structured training, practice, and feedback.

The BCG AI at Work 2025 survey found that more than three-quarters of leaders and managers use generative AI several times a week, while regular use among frontline employees has stalled at 51%. And here's the key insight: when employees receive substantial training with in-person coaching, regular AI usage jumps dramatically. The technology isn't the bottleneck. The training infrastructure is. Companies that invest in their people see results. Companies that don't are creating a two-tier workforce, with the top leveraging AI to accelerate their careers while the bottom falls further behind.

What Real Digital Equity Looks Like Now

What should we do about it? If you're a company leader reading this, the answer isn't to wait for policy solutions or hope your employees figure it out on their own. You have a responsibility—and an opportunity—to close this gap inside your own organization.

First, audit who's getting trained. Not who's been invited to a training, but who's actually completing it, using the tools, and seeing results. If your AI adoption maps to your existing power structure—executives and knowledge workers getting fluent while frontline workers get nothing—you're reinforcing the divide instead of closing it. Second, invest in real training, not checkbox compliance. Twenty hours minimum, with coaching and feedback, not a recorded webinar people click through while doing something else. Surface-level exposure doesn't move the needle—real fluency requires depth, repetition, and application to actual work. Third, measure fluency, not just adoption. Track whether people can actually use AI to improve their work outcomes, not just whether they've logged into a tool. Fourth, make it part of the job, not an add-on. People don't have time to learn AI in addition to their existing responsibilities. Build learning into workflows and give people permission to experiment.

The World Economic Forum projects that 40% of core workplace skills will change by 2030. Companies that figure out how to develop their existing workforce—especially frontline workers—will have a massive competitive advantage. Those that don't will face talent shortages, high turnover, and declining productivity even as they pour money into AI infrastructure.

The New Rules of Digital Equity

Access without fluency is not equity. Giving people tools they can't use effectively isn't closing the gap—it's creating the illusion of progress while the divide widens.
Training is infrastructure. AI training should be treated like any other critical business investment—funded adequately, measured rigorously, and available to everyone who needs it. Twenty hours minimum.
Fluency is the new literacy. Just as basic reading and writing skills determined economic opportunity in previous eras, AI fluency will determine who can participate in the next economy.
Companies must lead. Don't wait for government programs or hope the market solves this. If you employ people, you have a responsibility to prepare them for how their jobs are changing.
This is a civil rights issue. The patterns of exclusion we fought against in previous generations are being replicated by new technology. Recognizing that should change how urgently we act.

My Disruptive Take

I've spent my career at the intersection of education, technology, and civil rights—from founding that NAACP chapter at UC to leading the University's Board through the creation of the 1819 Innovation Hub to building Disruption Now as a platform for workforce transformation. The thread that connects all of it is a belief that access to opportunity should not be determined by the circumstances of your birth. That's what civil rights has always been about.

Today, that fight has a new front line. The question isn't whether AI will transform the economy—it already is. The question is whether we'll let that transformation replicate past exclusions or do the hard work of building pathways for everyone. For company leaders, this isn't just a moral imperative. It's a business strategy. The organizations that develop AI fluency across their entire workforce will outperform those that don't. But more importantly, they'll be building a future where your ability to participate in the economy isn't determined by your zip code, your demographics, or whether someone decided you were worth investing in.

Black History Month is a time to reflect on our history and how we got here. But it's also a time to recognize that the struggle continues—in new forms, with new tools, on new terrain. Digital equity is the civil rights issue of our time. And like every civil rights fight before it, the outcome will depend on whether enough people decide it matters.

Ready to Close the AI Fluency Gap?

For enterprise teams of 20+ looking to build real AI fluency across your workforce—not just awareness, but the skills that transform how people work—let's talk. We help organizations build training infrastructure that reaches everyone, not just those already at the top.

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Disruption Now® Podcast

Disruption Now® interviews leaders at the intersection of emerging tech, humanity, and policy. Conversations focused on how builders and decision-makers can operate effectively to accelerate change, empowering humans rather than replacing them.

Keep Disrupting, My Friends.

Rob Richardson – Founder, Disruption Now® & Chief Curator of MidwestCon