WHERE TECHNOLOGY MEETS OPPORTUNITY

Artificial intelligence is transforming the skills young people will need for the future. But the opportunity to access, experiment with and meaningfully apply these technologies is not equally distributed.

This gap is particularly significant because learning AI is about much more than learning a new piece of software. Used thoughtfully, these tools can give young people the ability to research, design, communicate, create and solve problems in ways that previously required considerable resources or specialist expertise.

For students with limited exposure to these technologies, the question is therefore not simply one of digital access. It is one of opportunity: who gets to participate in the new economy, and who gets the chance to create with the tools shaping it?

Two Needs. One Opportunity.

In developing GenRise Labs, Karam began thinking about another challenge within local communities in Bihar.

Many micro-entrepreneurs — from small retailers and food businesses to artisans and service providers — possess valuable products, knowledge and entrepreneurial drive. Yet professional branding, product photography, digital catalogues, social-media content and other marketing services can be difficult or expensive for a very small business to access.

Karam saw the possibility of connecting these two needs.

What if students could learn emerging AI and digital skills not through hypothetical exercises, but by solving genuine problems for businesses around them?

A student learning Canva and Generative AI could help a local entrepreneur create a product catalogue. Another could produce a short promotional video. A student team could help a business organise its WhatsApp presence, develop marketing material or create a simple system for tracking orders and customers.

The entrepreneur gains access to useful digital capabilities. The student gains something equally valuable: experience, confidence and the understanding that a skill they have learned can create real value.

That idea became GenRise Labs.

From Learning to Doing

GenRise is designed around a simple principle: skills become more powerful when they are used.

Students first learn practical tools in Generative AI, content creation, digital marketing and entrepreneurship. They then move from the classroom into “Live Labs”, working with real micro-businesses to understand a problem, develop a solution, receive feedback and improve their work.

In doing so, they learn far more than technology. They learn to listen to a client, communicate an idea, work in teams, respond when something doesn’t work and take responsibility for an outcome.

The computer labs would provide the infrastructure. But they were never intended to be the destination.

The aim was not simply to teach young people how to use technology. It was to help them discover what they could do with it.

Building Something That Lasts

GenRise Labs ultimately hopes to create a model that does not depend on Karam continuing to lead every workshop or project himself.

The longer-term ambition is to develop student teams, train local teachers and mentors, establish repeatable curricula and workflows, and gradually create a student-led micro-agency capable of supporting local entrepreneurs on an ongoing basis.

If successful, students who begin as learners can become creators, mentors and eventually leaders themselves — passing their knowledge to the next cohort.

And a model piloted in one community in Bihar could ultimately be adapted for other schools and communities facing similar gaps between talent, technology and opportunity.