All the while, my mind kept drifting back to classrooms and community halls in South Africa, across Africa and the diaspora. Grounding spacesOne of the most grounding spaces for me was the inaugural Education House, where education leaders from around the world wrestled with what AI means for youth, schools and teachers. A speaker from a global youth organisation described their “piece of the puzzle” as building self-efficacy – the belief that young people can own their economic success so that AI is not something that just happens to them. For youth and educators in South Africa, across Africa and beyond, these insights translate into urgent, practical questions. How do we design entrepreneurship and leadership programmes that treat self-efficacy and mental wellbeing as core infrastructure rather than optional add-ons?