When the city goes silent: Imagining life in the age of Artificial Intelligence

If you truly want to grasp the scale of disruption that Artificial Intelligence is about to unleash, let’s stretch our imagination for a moment.

Picture this: you walk into the city of Nairobi, and the familiar chaos is gone. No matatus hooting, no traffic jams, no queues at restaurants, no pedestrians on the pavements. The city hums quietly, but not with people. It hums with data. The offices you once knew now exist as virtual spaces. The restaurants are ghost kitchens hidden in unknown locations, preparing meals that drones deliver within minutes. Even construction sites run on robotic precision. Every sensor, streetlight, and building is part of a living network, an intelligent city where everything communicates.

In this new order, every service is monitored, predicted, and optimised by AI. Traffic lights adjust to invisible flows of data, predicting accidents before they happen. Power grids distribute electricity based on real-time usage. Public health alerts are triggered automatically the moment wastewater analytics detect early signs of disease. It is a world where reaction is replaced by prediction.

Now, shift that lens to education. Imagine your child’s entire learning journey analysed by technology that understands their curiosity better than you do. Lessons adjust dynamically to their pace, and weaknesses are corrected instantly. That “career day” we once waited for in school will no longer exist because AI will have mapped every child’s strengths by the age of seven. Psychometric tests, aptitude assessments, and personality profiles will run quietly in the background, gathering behavioural cues to determine whether your child is better suited for design, technology studies, or diplomacy. No seminars for parents. No guesswork. Machines will know before you do.

Then there is the economy. You will not need economists in field offices conducting surveys or researchers crunching numbers for months. Every financial transaction, every market movement, every consumer preference will be tracked in real time. AI dashboards will update government policy before a Cabinet meeting is even convened. Taxes will adjust automatically based on live performance indicators. Budgets will be drawn, implemented, and evaluated by code.

In healthcare, the disruption will be even more personal. Your watch will monitor your heartbeat, stress levels, and hydration, and send alerts directly to your doctor or to your AI health companion. You will be advised on what to eat, how much to sleep, and when to slow down. Hospitals will treat fewer patients because diseases will be intercepted before they take hold. Pharmacies will evolve into diagnostic labs offering instant AI-guided tests. During COVID-19, we saw a glimpse of this when hygiene awareness alone cut hospital visits drastically. Now imagine a world where every person wears a constant health monitor. AI will shift medicine from cure to prevention.

Law and justice will not be spared either. Soon, or even today, you will not need to hire a lawyer for routine legal advice. Describe your case to an AI system, and it will analyse the law and predict the likely judgment based on precedent. With virtual court sessions already in place, we are only steps away from algorithmic advocacy where AI helps you draft, file, and argue your case. The legal profession will not vanish, but its exclusivity will. Expertise will be democratised.

Leadership will also change. We often assume that elections are the ultimate expression of democracy, yet AI may soon expose their inefficiency. In some countries, leadership transitions are determined by institutional intelligence rather than ballot boxes. Imagine a future where leaders are selected through transparent data analytics, their performance and integrity measured in real time. Political rallies will become relics of the past as digital portfolios and verified performance records speak louder than slogans. Popularity will give way to measurable competence.

This is not science fiction. These are fragments of a reality already unfolding. Every nation, company, and institution should now be asking how to position themselves in this future. The answer is not to create “AI as a subject” in schools but to embed it across every subject. Let a student of agriculture use AI to monitor soil nutrients. Let an art student use it to explore new forms of expression. Let a history student train AI models to recreate lost civilisations. The goal is not to study AI, but to think with it.

The job market will transform beyond recognition. Clerical, administrative, and repetitive roles are already being automated by AI agents. A company that once required fifty employees may soon run efficiently with ten, all aided by digital co-workers that never sleep, never complain, and never make arithmetic mistakes. Yet as old jobs disappear, new ones are emerging: prompt engineers, AI ethicists, digital twin architects, data storytellers, and algorithmic auditors. The question is not whether AI will replace jobs, but whether we will adapt our skills fast enough to remain relevant.

AI will even redefine what it means to own a business. Picture an entrepreneur relaxing in Diani or Kigali while their AI systems handle procurement, inventory, marketing, and customer support. Investment decisions will be automated. AI will study the stock market, detect patterns invisible to human eyes, and execute trades in seconds. Brokers, fund managers, and consultants will evolve into curators of machine intelligence rather than gatekeepers of human wisdom.

And as governments expand internet access to remote areas and digitise public services, rural living will become more attractive. Young people will choose the countryside for cheaper living, flexible routines, and new opportunities to invest in their land rather than rent apartments in the city. The trend has already begun. Entertainment joints are recording fewer patrons, not because people are antisocial, but because the new social spaces are virtual, personalised, and borderless.

This is the paradox of progress. We will be more connected yet more alone, more efficient yet more dependent, more informed yet less private. AI will not just change how we work; it will redefine how we exist.

It is time to stop reacting and start reimagining. The nations that will thrive are those that view AI not as a threat but as an ecosystem that must be guided, integrated, and continuously reviewed. The pace of change is too fast for static policy. Foresight councils, adaptive curricula, and ethical frameworks will be our new infrastructure.

Because the real danger is not that AI will replace humans. It is that humans will fail to evolve fast enough to remain relevant.