03 Solutions
Research & Consultancy
The Future of Work & Artificial Intelligence.
Our approach
Rigorous empirical research, at the core of everything we do
We believe that rigorous empirical research needs to be at the core of everything we do amidst the AI Revolution. We examine how generative AI solutions are implemented across different sectors, and how this changes global labour markets and global value chains. Unlike past technological revolutions, which started in one place and took time to trickle to the rest of the world, the current AI Revolution happens everywhere at the same time. When OpenAI releases a new model, enthusiasts in most cities around the world can test what it can do in their respective fields of expertise. With growing connectivity and AI accessibility, young tinkerers around the world are at the frontier of knowledge. Little is known about how labour markets and global value chains will change with increasing global connectivity and AI capability.
At MeliaCRED, we collaborate with some of the world's leading academics, working on the intersection of technological change, international business, and the economics of trade in services. We continually seek new ways to generate knowledge on how AI is transforming the world of work, and we regularly publish research findings. For updates, subscribe to Elvis's blog, 42, 37, 8 billion, on Substack.
Firms and institutions commission us for studies, market scans and strategy work on AI in services, on African services exports and on the firms that deliver them. Twelve of our studies are public and listed below; others were commissioned by clients and stay with them. Want to commission a study? Write to elvis@meliacred.com.
Studies
12 published studies on jobs, online work and AI
Newest first. Each study has its own page with the citation, the publisher's link and the PDF where there is one. Other studies were commissioned by clients and stay with them.
- 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.
- 2024Will AI replace jobs in Africa?Elvis Melia · GIZ, BMZ Digital Global · ArticleBusiness process outsourcing (BPO) offers relatively good wages and legal protection in a region where most work is informal. Can digital services exports drive growth the way manufacturing exports once did, and will AI undermine that path? Past technologies favoured skilled workers, which would keep BPO in established hubs such as India. Yet several randomised studies find that AI helps less experienced workers most. That finding favours young African service providers. BPO firms should therefore consider new delivery locations in Africa: this creates jobs and reduces poverty.
- 2023Where in the World Will Global Business Services Now Find Workers? Are African Labor Markets Ready?Elvis Melia · FDI Alliance International Magazine, pages 18 to 19 · Magazine articleA short piece for investment promoters: global business services firms are looking for new delivery locations, and Africa's fast-growing cities are the candidates. The article asks what African labour markets need to be ready for them.
- 2023The 3 a.m. Phone Call: A Gendered Perspective on the Working Conditions of Kenyan Online WritersElvis Melia, Elizabeth Muthoni Wahu, Anne Gichuku, Peninah Murimi, Otto Kässi · GIGA Working Paper No. 330, German Institute for Global and Area Studies · Working paperPhone surveys of Kenyan online platform workers in 2018 and 2023 show that men outnumber women by about four to one. Two factors explain the gap: the low expectations men hold of women's ability to deliver, and the short-notice night work with tight deadlines that the platforms demand. This 'manager-controlled flexibility' is hard to meet for women who also carry household and care work. The pattern differs by subsector: academic writing, where the demands are highest, has fewer women than transcription.
- 2023Good Gigs If You Get Them: Analysis of Working Schedules and Wages of Platform Workers in IndiaOtto Kässi, Elvis Melia · Etla Economic Research and University of Duisburg-Essen · StudyA study of the working schedules and wages of online platform workers in India: who gets the good gigs, when they work, and what they earn compared with local alternatives.
- 2022Rwandan Jobs in the Digital Era: Scenarios for the Future of IT-Enabled ServicesElvis Melia, Tristan Gengnagel, Mads Knudsen · GIZ · StudyTwo studies on digital work for young Rwandans. Study I looks at ride-hailing and food delivery platforms in Kigali, where the government mandates selected platforms that work like public utilities; drivers and riders report high costs, fare problems and competition from off-platform operators. Study II looks at online freelancing and global business services (contact centres and back-office work). Rwanda has little online work so far but real potential to build a GBS cluster with formal, export-oriented jobs, if it closes the English-language skills gap and keeps work visas and costs competitive. The study informed Rwanda's GBS investment promotion strategy.
- 2020Is the Pandemic Deepening the Digital Divide?Tina Zintl, Elvis Melia · The Current Column, German Development Institute (DIE, now IDOS) · ColumnLockdowns moved white-collar work online, but workers in low- and lower-middle-income countries often lack the connectivity, the skills and the conditions to follow. The column also sees the other side: platforms and remote work give better-connected urban workers in the Global South new chances as digital services move their way. It warns that pandemic surveillance tools can strengthen digital authoritarianism, and asks governments to back anonymised contact tracing, cheaper broadband and easier market entry for online firms and workers.
- 2020African Jobs in the Digital Era: Export Options with a Focus on Online LabourElvis Melia · Discussion Paper 3/2020, German Development Institute (DIE, now IDOS) · Discussion paperCan IT-enabled services exports become an alternative driver of African catch-up growth, the way light manufacturing was for East Asia? Automation may cut the demand for low-cost labour in global value chains. The paper presents Kenya's growing online freelancing sector as evidence of sector growth and of workers moving up, and it discusses what makes online work a path that lasts.
- 2019The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on Jobs in Africa: A Literature ReviewElvis Melia · Discussion Paper 3/2019, German Development Institute (DIE, now IDOS) · Discussion paperA review of what the research says about information and communication technologies and jobs in Africa: which jobs mobile phones, the Internet and digital platforms create, which they change, and where the evidence is still thin.
- 2016The Political Economy of Extractive ResourcesElvis Melia · GIZ · StudyA study for GIZ on how oil, gas and mining revenues shape politics, and what that means for governments and their partners.
- 2014Kick-starting Industrial Transformation in Sub-Saharan AfricaTilman Altenburg, Elvis Melia · Chapter 13 in Transforming Economies: Making Industrial Policy Work for Growth, Jobs and Development, International Labour Office · Book chapterA chapter on how industrial policy can start structural change in sub-Saharan Africa, in the ILO's volume on making industrial policy work for growth and jobs.
- 2013Kenya's Elections: No News Is Good News!Elvis Melia · The Current Column, German Development Institute (DIE, now IDOS) · ColumnKenya's 2013 election was close and the count was slow, as in 2007, yet the country stayed peaceful. The column credits deliberate measures (a commission against hate speech, restraint in the media), some unintended ones (the ICC cases), and above all the 2010 constitution: devolved government and a stronger judiciary gave losing candidates other positions and a legal route to contest the result. The reforms remained fragile, and donors should tie their support to acceptance of the court's verdict and to devolution that reaches the counties.
Podcast
Conversations with Elvis
24 episodes and talks since 2022: the people building AI, outsourcing and digital work in Africa and Europe, in their own words.
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.
Doctor of Stars and Teacher of AI
Yabebal Fantaye, PhD · Ethiopia · 2025
Elvis speaks with Dr. Yabebal Fantaye, a cosmologist turned AI educator and co-founder of 10 Academy, about turning African talent into global AI professionals through intensive boot camps. From analysing the universe with 10,000 supercomputers at Berkeley to building Ethiopia's AI workforce pipeline, Yabebal shares his journey from pursuing a Nobel Prize in physics to AI education across 21 African countries.
AI Sniff Test
David Cushman · United Kingdom · 2025
Elvis speaks with David Cushman, Executive Research Leader at HFS Research, about how to separate hype from reality in agentic and generative AI and what a shift toward Services-as-Software means for people, providers, and clients. They explore where AI hits first in services, especially CX/BPO, why headcounts have not collapsed yet, and how value migrates toward human-AI teams and enterprise agents that actually do work.
AI in World Football
Wondwesen Zewdie · Ethiopia · 2025
Elvis speaks with Wondwesen Zewdie about what happens when data, algorithms, and national identity collide on the football pitch. They explore R&D Group's 'Moneyball' contribution to professional football analytics with artificial intelligence, and the Ethiopian outsourcing association's (EOA's) approach to regional and global networking in the Global Business Services sector.
Life after AGI
Georgina Hutchinson · United Kingdom · 2025
Elvis speaks with Georgina Hutchinson, Associate Partner at Dalberg Data Insights and former Senior Advisor at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. Georgina has spent years at the intersection of technology, policy, and governance, working to open AI up for the public good.
Scaling Kenya's Technology Talent
Jente Rosseel · Kenya · 2025
Elvis speaks with Jente Rosseel, founder and CEO of Elewa, a Nairobi-based technology and education company working primarily with startups and SMEs across Europe, the UK, and South Africa. Jente shares his journey from Belgium to Kenya, detailing how Elewa bridges the gap between ambitious startups and cutting-edge technological solutions through apprenticeship programmes, managed talent accelerators, and professional training.
How Challenger Destinations Can Win
Beruh Yayehyirad · Ethiopia · 2025
Elvis speaks with Beruh Yayehyirad Kitaw, Director of Technology at MMCY, a global talent company based in Addis Ababa. MMCY operates at the intersection of technology outsourcing and business process outsourcing, providing talent across tech and customer support. Beruh describes MMCY's journey from a purely tech-focused firm to a hybrid organisation, their use of AI agents in recruitment and talent management, and Ethiopia's potential as a challenger among outsourcing destinations.
Building Ethiopia's Outsourcing Empire
Samuel Mussie · Ethiopia · 2025
Elvis speaks with Samuel Mussie, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Mereb Technologies, about Ethiopia's rapid transformation into a software outsourcing destination and the double-edged effect of AI on junior developers. Samuel leads a team that has grown from a startup to a company with 40 employees, expanding rapidly to 60 people.
Intelligence is beyond memory
Kaleab Mezgebu · Ethiopia · 2025
Elvis speaks with Kaleab Mezgebu, co-founder and CEO of MinabTech in Addis Ababa, about practical applications of AI in Ethiopia. Kaleab shares how MinabTech built HaHuJobs, an AI-driven employment platform, and discusses the role of AI in employment, data classification and efficiency. They explore Ethiopia's economy, its sociopolitical challenges, and the realistic limits of AI in driving meaningful change.
AI and Jobs in Africa
Rahul Srivatsa · United States · 2025
Rahul Srivatsa is the Managing Director of Techno Brain GBS. We spoke about the transformation of business process outsourcing (BPO), the automation threat to contact centres, and what workforce planning could look like across Africa in the era of artificial intelligence (AI).
Leapfrogging into AI
Barrett Nash · Georgia · 2025
A discussion with Barrett Nash, founder of InfiniteUp, about building AI-powered business tools, access to artificial intelligence for everyone, and strategic career planning for the AI era. Barrett builds tools that open AI capabilities up to entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Outsourcing our Brains
Johan Steyn · South Africa · 2025
A discussion with AI strategist Johan Steyn about education disruption, the future of coding careers, and Africa's evolving business services sector. Johan is often referred to as Africa's leading AI commentator and writes for Reuters, Business Day, The Sunday Times, Finweek, News24, ITWeb and Brainstorm Magazine.
The AI Opportunity for Africa
Elvis Melia, a talk at CCI Global's Elevate Africa conference · Kenya · 2024 · Talk
In this short talk, Elvis presents the state-of-the-art research findings on the effect of generative AI on worker productivity. Unlike previous ICT innovations, the current large language models seem to benefit younger, less productive workers the most. The conference was hosted by CCI Global in Kenya for the opening of CCI Kenya's new 5,000-people building in Tatu City, north of Nairobi, in May 2024.
AmaliTech and the Digital Skills Accelerator Africa
Martin Hecker · Ghana and Germany · 2023
After a long career at the Boston Consulting Group, Martin Hecker created AmaliTech, a social business that specialises in exporting digital services from Africa to the world. Martin also created the DSAA, a club that funnels German development aid funding to global business services firms that set up offices in Africa.
Objectivity's software developers serve global clients from Rwanda
Jacques Nyilinkindi · Rwanda · 2023
Software development is among the most complex and best-paying jobs that can be offshored. This is what put the Indian IT-enabled services sector on the global map. Yet a worldwide talent shortage still exists. As ever more young Africans enter digital labour markets, ever more young software developers become available to the world. Elvis speaks with Objectivity's Jacques Nyilinkindi about the changes and opportunities in Kigali's technology ecosystem.
Deriv, an online broker, serving the world from Kigali
Godfrey Zvenyika · Rwanda · 2023
Global Business Services (GBS) companies come in many shapes. Deriv is an online brokerage firm that turned Kigali into one of its global delivery locations. Elvis speaks with Godfrey Zvenyika, the Country Manager, about Kigali as Deriv's decision for its Africa office, about Rwanda as a possible destination for other GBS firms, about Kigali's ecosystem of digital services exporters, and about the pros and cons of different African countries for building service export clusters in the coming years.
Tek Experts and the future of Rwanda's services exports
Gary Bennett · Rwanda · 2023
For Rwandan graduates starting a career in IT services, for Global Business Services firms looking for a new delivery location, for government officials seeking to build a digital services export cluster, and for development partners hoping to support future-oriented job creation in an African metropolis: Gary Bennett speaks about Kigali's emerging hub of services exports.
Umurava, Kigali's supplier of digital work to the world
Vivens Uwizeyimana · Rwanda · 2023
Kigali is home to a tight-knit ecosystem of up-skilling and work-readiness programmes tailored to the Global Business Services sector. Firms interested in coming to Rwanda to export IT-enabled services, or in importing digital services from Rwanda, will find this conversation useful. Elvis speaks with Vivens Uwizeyimana, founder and CEO of Umurava, a talent marketplace and workforce outsourcing platform.
Filmmaking in Nigeria and Rwanda
Hassan Tha Kreator · Rwanda · 2023
Making films and creating video content has become much more accessible, and as the digital realm brings the world closer together, collaborations across borders emerge in creative fields that were once limited by geography. Hassan Tha Kreator tells Elvis about his journey as a young filmmaker from Nigeria to Rwanda, the differences between the two countries, the future of African filmmaking, and how the strengths of different countries can complement each other as Africa's creative economy expands.
PesaChoice: work, culture, and change in Rwanda and Africa
Pépita Uwineza · Rwanda · 2023
A global business services firm setting up a new delivery centre in Africa first has to choose the right country, then has to manage the local workforce: labour laws, customs, skill levels. PesaChoice is a human resources management platform that helps incoming companies with the second challenge and, as it expands across the continent, with the first. Pépita Uwineza and Elvis discuss work, culture and change in Rwanda and Africa.
Education First, and training Rwanda's digital services exporters
Oriane Ruzibiza · Rwanda · 2023
When Global Business Services firms choose new delivery locations, they look for stable governance, conducive regulations, reliable infrastructure, and workers with the right skills. Rwanda tops Africa's charts on the first three, and the government has begun an initiative with international partners to train a large pool of GBS workers. Oriane Ruzibiza introduces EF's English language training pilot, tailored to GBS agents and free of charge for GBS firms.
SOLVIT AFRICA, and Kigali's ecosystem of digital service exports
Joseph Semafara · Rwanda · 2022
Rwanda's progress over three decades has turned a small country into one of Africa's emerging technology hubs. Global Business Services companies have set up delivery locations in Kigali, and Joseph Semafara is a leading figure in giving these investors a soft landing. His company, SOLVIT AFRICA, trains young graduates to become GBS agents and works closely with the firms already in Rwanda and those about to make Kigali their next delivery location.
AltSchool Africa and the future of school and work in Africa
Adewale Yusuf · Nigeria · 2022
Africa is full of young people who see the internet as their ticket to a better life. Adewale Yusuf, a Nigerian tech entrepreneur, built TalentQL to connect African programmers with global tech companies, all remotely. He then saw that few applicants were ready to deliver what global clients needed, so he founded another company, AltSchool Africa, to close that gap. A conversation about the future of school and work in Africa.
Cloud Empires: How Digital Platforms are Overtaking the State
Vili Lehdonvirta · University of Oxford · 2022
Vili Lehdonvirta is Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research at the Oxford Internet Institute. Elvis speaks with him about his book Cloud Empires (MIT Press, 2022), which traces the cyberlibertarian endeavour of using technology to free people from the state, and how digital platforms came to govern work and trade instead.