MeliaCRED · Erkrath and Nairobi

We help European firms win with AI.

Hackathons that turn teams into managers of AI. Research on what AI does to services work. Connections to the best AI-enabled services firms in Africa's fast-growing cities.

Book a call Write to elvis@meliacred.com

70+: AI hackathons and workshops since 2023
7: countries, in Europe and Africa
133: participant voices on record
12: published studies on jobs, online work and AI

01HackathonsBuild. Your. Future. Now.In one day your team builds real solutions with AI and leaves as managers of AI, with performance certificates.
02SolutionsResearch & ConsultancyStudies, market scans and strategy work on AI in services, African services exports and the firms that deliver them.
03ConnectionsThe Business Network.European business leaders and vetted AI-enabled services firms from Accra, Addis Ababa, Kigali and Nairobi at one table.

Why MeliaCRED

Three tracks, one destination

AI changes the nature of work, and the firms that win will be the ones whose people manage the machines most intuitively.

01Hackathons

We vet and train those people in our one-day hackathons and follow-up tests.

02Solutions

We study what AI does to services work, from contact centres to software, in Europe and in Africa.

03Connections

And we bring European business leaders together with the AI-enabled services firms in Accra, Addis Ababa, Kigali and Nairobi that already do this work for clients abroad.

The three tracks become one: The hackathons show us how firms actually adopt AI. The research tells us where the future of work is headed. The human connections we facilitate between industry leaders create the new, AI-enabled business value chains.

01 Hackathons · What participants say

133 voices from our hackathons and workshops

Every card links to the original LinkedIn post. Flip through them, or let the deck turn.

Hackathons

We have 133 testimonials

It’s not every day you get to organize and mentor at an AI hackathon✨ As organizers we had faced challenges but using AI to solve problems on the spot, like randomly assigning teams and building the voting platform for the event held the Saturday before last, kept us thinking quickly on our feet. It was an experience to be both mentors and problem-solvers for the event Working closely with my team of trainees and helping them brainstorm ideas 💡, overcome challenges🤔, and push boundaries 🚧 was very rewarding. Having our own Kenean Nigatu come in second 🥈was a proud moment for all of us. Meeting and networking with other brilliant mentors in my field added even more energy to the experience. Connecting with these talented individuals made the journey exciting and fulfilling 🤝. I was amazed by the entrepreneurial talent in our country 🇪🇹. People from different fields brought their expertise to tackle real-world problems with AI, presenting creative and impactful ideas. This hackathon revealed the incredible untapped potential in Ethiopia and serves as a wake-up call for us to harness AI and level the playing field. Huge thanks to Elvis Melia for bringing everyone together and ALX ETHIOPIA for hosting us. Shout out to trainers from R&D Group and 10 Academy who mostly built the voting site you guys were awesome it was an unforgettable event 🎉

Nehemiah Aklil

Full-Stack Mobile Developer

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It was a privilege to meet you Elvis Melia. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom regarding AI. I gained so much, as I’m sure my colleagues did too. We are in this state of transition to a new way of working with AI - your session encourages me that we can make this work to accelerate the changes we need to make for a better society for everyone. And the opportunities for SA and Africa seem brighter than ever - we must just be smart, determined, and must act with more urgency in unlocking them. Looking forward to spending more time with you discussing GBS and AI in Africa.

Andy Searle

Co-Owner and Director at Paladin Consulting

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02 Solutions

Research on AI and the future of work

Twelve published studies on jobs, online work and AI in Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya and Ethiopia, and 24 podcast episodes and talks with the people who do the work.

All studies and episodes

The latest study

2025The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Global Business Services in Ghana and RwandaElvis Melia · SSRN working paper, University of Duisburg-Essen · Working paperHow can workers in global business services (GBS) in Ghana and Rwanda prepare for AI? We ran 14 day-long AI workshops with 279 GBS workers and trainees and surveyed 168 of them three months later. 70 percent said the workshop had changed how they use AI significantly or completely, and 69 percent said it saved them at least five working hours a week. More than 80 percent felt they had become better at tasks such as writing emails, researching and solving problems. Only 22 percent had access to comparable AI training, and 90 percent asked for a follow-up workshop. The paper closes with recommendations for firms, associations and governments.

Conversations with Elvis, the podcast

5 ways AI can help BPOs
Nick Clark · Boston Consulting Group · 2025
Elvis speaks with Nick Clark, Partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), about how artificial intelligence is reshaping customer experience (CX), outsourcing, and the global business-services industry. Drawing on his experience advising Fortune 500 companies and leading transformation programmes, Nick unpacks what AI adoption really looks like inside enterprises, from copilots and agentic workflows to the human challenges of change management. They explore five practical ways AI can help BPOs, the rise of AI-related fraud and trust-and-safety outsourcing, and how automation is creating new kinds of work even as it transforms existing roles.
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